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HEALTHCARE COLLABORATIVE LAUNCHED TO DEMONSTRATE TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY AND VALUE OF STANDARDS-BASED ELECTRONIC MODEL OF DATA INTERCHANGE
National Demonstration Project Electronically Connects Hospitals, Public Health, Government Agencies to Enhance Patient Care and Meet Public Health Goals

Washington, D.C. - June 5, 2003 - A growing consortium of public and private sector organizations, including nationally recognized healthcare providers, physician groups, public health agencies, payers, government agencies, and leading healthcare information technology companies representing over 90% of the market, today launched the Healthcare Collaborative Network (HCN), a national demonstration project designed to demonstrate how electronic communications using common standards can help patients and physicians receive necessary and timely medical treatment and guard against medical errors, incorrect prescriptions and adverse drug events and public health to receive the information it needs to identify and respond to public health care threats that range from naturally occurring diseases, such as SARS, to deliberate bioterror attacks.

HCN was unveiled today at Connecting Healthcare in the Information Age, a landmark conference in Washington, D.C. where more than 300 of the nation’s most influential public and private sector health care leaders gathered at the National Press Club to celebrate the final results of Connecting for Health…a Public-Private Collaborative, a nine-month effort convened by the Markle Foundation with participation by the Foundation for the eHealthcare Initiative to bring electronic connectivity to healthcare to improve patient care, lower costs, and protect privacy.

The purpose of the HCN, which was born out of the work of Connecting for Health, is to demonstrate both the feasibility and the value of a standards-based, interconnected, electronic model of data interchange to a wide variety of stakeholders, including practicing clinicians, hospitals and other healthcare providers, public health agencies, researchers, and ultimately patients. In the first phase of the project, HCN will allow providers and agencies to privately and securely exchange de-identified data related to clinical procedures, lab results, pharmacy prescriptions and diagnostic summaries to support efforts to assure necessary and timely medical treatment, identify adverse drug events, and support surveillance for infectious diseases.

Today, as part of the initial launch, three healthcare providers?New York Presbyterian Hospitals (New York, NY), Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Nashville, TN), and Wishard Memorial Hospital (Indianapolis, IN) and three Federal agencies?the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Food and Drug Administration?working with the support of the IBM Corporation, who has played a key leadership role in the project by contributing project management, consulting, technology, and implementation services, will be exchanging data using data standards identified by Connecting for Health. Metatomix and ESRI are providing mapping and visualization capabilities and iNterfaceware is providing HL7 parsing software. The Foundation for eHealth Initiative is providing staffing support.

A number of hospitals or health systems, including MedStar Health and University of Illinois Medical Center, public health agencies, physician groups, payers, additional federal agencies, and healthcare information and technology companies representing over 90% of the market, including Cerner Corporation, GE Medical Systems, McKesson Corporation, Siemens Corporation, Health Hero, and NDC Health are actively engaged in becoming full participants in the project over the summer. It is anticipated that the number of participating organizations will continue to grow over the course of the project.

“New York-Presbyterian Hospital is participating in the Healthcare Collaborative Network because we believe that information technology provides an unprecedented opportunity to enhance the quality of care that we provide to our patients,” said Dr. Herbert Pardes, president and CEO of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, CEO of New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System, and member of the Foundation for the eHealth Initiative Board. “But before the full value of IT can be realized, an interconnected healthcare network must be created that links providers, insurers, regulators and patients. To do this requires standards. It is our duty as healthcare professionals to take every opportunity available to continuously improve the quality of care we provide.”

“HCN is launching at a critical time,” said Russell Ricci, MD, general manager of IBM Global Healthcare, eHealth Initiative board chair. “It offers fresh solutions for the seemingly insurmountable shortfalls in our inefficient and poorly connected health care system. Physicians, hospitals, public health, and federal agencies can all do a better job if they can communicate electronically using common data standards,” added Ricci. “There is an enormous potential to save lives if the healthcare industry can communicate faster.”

Janet Marchibroda, executive director of Connecting for Health and executive director of the Foundation for the eHealth Initiative Board, which is taking a leadership role in sponsoring the efforts of HCN explained the critical importance of the initiative. “Our nation’s paper-based, highly fragmented healthcare system faces a range of challenges, including an aging population, quality of care issues, rising healthcare costs, medical safety lapses, and ongoing public health threats.

The Healthcare Collaborative Network is an historic national effort involving public and private sector leaders who are showing the value and feasibility to using electronic exchange with privacy and security protections to improve healthcare. The benefits of an interconnected, standards-based, electronic model of data interchange such as the HCN to patient care and public health are enormous.”

HCN’s emphasis on electronic, standards-based transmission and exchange of health care data and enhanced interoperability will improve the health care system for all stakeholders, including practicing clinicians, health systems and hospitals, public health organizations, researchers, payers, quality improvement organizations, and, of course, patients. “Through our involvement in a similar initiative at the local level ‘ the Indianapolis Network for Patient Care’ we have experienced first-hand the reductions in cost and the improvements in quality and safety that can occur through the sharing of health information across institutions,” said J. Marc Overhage, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine; Senior Investigator, Regenstrief Institute, Leadership Council member of eHealth Initiative.

As work on HCN proceeds, Marchibroda said, “the Foundation for the eHealth Initiative and its members will continue to play a critical leadership role, because the project is highly aligned with our vision that consumers, providers and those responsible for population health should have ready access to timely, relevant, reliable and secure health care information through an interconnected, electronic health information infrastructure to support better health and healthcare.”

About the eHealth Initiative and its Foundation The mission of the eHealth Initiative and the Foundation are the same: to drive improvement in the quality, safety and cost-effectiveness of health care through information technology. Members represent many of the stakeholders in the health care industry with interests in improving the health care system through the use of IT, including physician groups, health systems and hospitals, healthcare information technology suppliers, health plans, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, employers and purchasers, academic and research institutions, and non-profit organizations.

For more information about the eHealth Initiative, call 202-408-9164 or visit www.ehealthinitiative.org.