• CHIME Recognizes Cerner Chairman, CEO Neal Patterson with 2014 Industry Leader Award

    SAN ANTONIO, TX, October 31, 2014 – For his more than 35 years of service to the healthcare IT industry, Cerner Corp. Chairman and CEO Neal Patterson was awarded this year’s Industry Leader Award by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) Foundation.

    The award, presented today at the CHIME14 Fall CIO Forum in San Antonio, Texas, recognizes Patterson’s work over those years to infuse digital records in the care delivery process.

    “I’m honored to receive this award,” Patterson said. “It’s a gift and a privilege to get to do work that is so meaningful. On its very best day, health care is hard, complex and ambiguous. Information plays a mission-critical role for doctors and nurses. We have a significant responsibility to continue to innovate and get the right information in the right hands at the right time. It is an exciting time to be involved in health IT.”

    Patterson co-founded Cerner in 1979. The company started by offering a single laboratory information system in the mid-1980s. Patterson and Cerner didn’t stop there, continuing development efforts to create a suite of integrated, clinically focused commercial healthcare applications. In the 1990s, Cerner offered an application set built on a common platform with real-time interactive decision support.

    The application platform was rebuilt on client server technology and shifted to a person-centric data model. Cerner continues to invest in product evolution, spending more than $3 billion on research and development in the last decade.

    Cerner solutions are now used by more than 3,100 hospitals and 447,000 providers in 22 countries. Company revenues totaled $2.9 billion in 2013, and the company has 15,000 associates worldwide.

    Patterson’s influence extends beyond his leadership at Cerner. He is currently a GAO appointee to the Health Information Technology Policy Committee. He was a member of the RAND Health Advisory Board from 2000 to 2007, and currently serves as a trustee of the Midwest Research Institute and a member of the First Hand Foundation Executive Board.

    “Mr. Patterson has been a leader in pursuing healthcare technology effectiveness and interoperability,” said Marc Probst, vice president and CIO of Intermountain Healthcare. “He believes there are times when competitors within an industry must cooperate for the advancement of the industry and betterment of society. He has actively demonstrated this ability to prioritize community healthcare interest over specific business benefits.”

    Patterson and Cerner also have been committed supporters of CHIME and the CHIME Foundation for many years, noted Gerald Bisbee, chairman and CEO of The Health Management Academy. “His active engagement within Cerner on CHIME strategic initiatives is testimony to his view of CHIME’s benefit,” Bisbee said. “Neal’s support of CHIME and the CHIME Foundation has tracked along with his vision for healthcare and the importance of digitization.”

    To learn more about the CHIME Foundation Industry Leader Award, click here.

    About CHIME
    The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,400 CIO members and over 140 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.chimecentral.org.

    About the CHIME Foundation
    The CHIME Foundation is a separate non-profit organization comprised of over 140 select healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms established to support the educational initiatives of the CHIME organization. The CHIME Foundation serves to educate its member organizations, enabling them to better address the needs of CIOs and the healthcare industry. For more information, please visit www.chimecentral.org/foundation.

    About Cerner Corp.
    Cerner’s health information technologies connect people, information and systems at more than 14,000 facilities worldwide. Recognized for innovation, Cerner solutions assist clinicians in making care decisions and enable organizations to manage the health of populations. The company also offers an integrated clinical and financial system to help health care organizations manage revenue, as well as a wide range of services to support clients’ clinical, financial and operational needs. Cerner’s mission is to contribute to the improvement of health care delivery and the health of communities. Nasdaq: CERN. For more information about Cerner, visit cerner.com, read our blog at cerner.com/blog, connect with us on Twitter and on Facebook. Certain trademarks, service marks and logos set forth herein are property of Cerner Corporation and/or its subsidiaries. All other non-Cerner marks are the property of their respective owners.

    Contact
    Stephanie Fraser
    Director of Communications and Corporate Relations, CHIME
    734.665.0000
    [email protected]

    Updated: 10/31/2014 8:57:41 AM

    Posted 10.31.2014

  • CHIME Honors Intermountain Healthcare & VMware for BYOD Collaboration

    SAN ANTONIO, TX, October 31, 2014 – Intermountain Healthcare’s decision to adopt a policy that enabled employees to use their own mobile devices brought potential benefits, but also a host of issues in managing those devices and ensuring the security of patient information.

    Through a collaborative effort with VMware, Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare was able to provide mobile access to information while effectively managing the wide range of devices. At last count, Intermountain’s mobile fleet includes more than 5,000 company-owned devices with other employees using an additional 1,600 devices through the system’s bring your own device (BYOD) program.

    In honor of their endeavor, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) presented one of two 2014 Collaboration Awards to Marc Probst, CIO of Intermountain Healthcare, and VMware at the CHIME14 Fall CIO Forum today in San Antonio, Texas.

    Intermountain adopted AirWatch, an enterprise mobility management solution from VMware. The application works with devices using various operating systems, and provides the ability to execute remote actions – such as lock, locate and wiping information – on mobile devices. Because some Intermountain employees travel between hospitals in the organization, that level of security functionality is important in the event that devices were lost or stolen.

    Intermountain also required the ability to restrict device access based on operating system, platform and other factors, to protect patient information, and the IT department needed a streamlined management process to allow quick device enrollment and status checks to ensure device compliance. The application gives IT administrators active management capabilities, enabling them to restrict employee access to applications, content and other information based on user permissions, which vary depending on job role, location and other factors.

    Intermountain extended its mobility strategy by enabling the use of lightweight iPads in its fleet of Life Flight aircraft, which include four helicopters and three fixed-wing planes serving as mobile intensive care units. The iPads contain an electronic library feature that hold documents, videos and aircraft manuals, synced to Intermountain’s content repositories.

    By using a centralized mobile management solution, Intermountain has gained cost savings and efficiencies in day-to-day operations. Other operational improvements include improved emergency department check-in times and faster access to patient information by clinicians. Employee efficiency has increased because they are able to use personal devices to access critical email, contacts, and calendars, facilitating access to hospital communications.

    To learn more about the CHIME Collaboration Award, click here.

    About CHIME
    The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,400 CIO members and over 140 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.chimecentral.org.

    About VMware
    VMware (NYSE: VMW) is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2013 revenues of $5.21 billion, VMware has more than 500,000 customers and 75,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com. Read more at here.

    About Intermountain Healthcare
    Intermountain Healthcare is a Utah-based not-for-profit system of 22 hospitals, 185 clinics, a medical group with about 1,300 employed physicians, a health plans division called SelectHealth, and other health services. Intermountain is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare through high quality and sustainable costs. For more information about Intermountain, visit www.intermountainhealthcare.org.

    Contact
    Stephanie Fraser
    Director of Communications and Corporate Relations, CHIME
    734.665.0000
    [email protected]

    Updated: 10/31/2014 8:59:17 AM

    Posted 10.31.2014

  • CHIME Honors Memorial Healthcare & Iatric Systems for Collaboration in Automating Meaningful Use Compliance

    SAN ANTONIO, TX, October 31, 2014  – The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) today presented one of two 2014 Collaboration Awards to Frank Fear, CIO and vice president of ancillary services at Memorial Healthcare, and Iatric Systems at the CHIME14 Fall CIO Forum in San Antonio, Texas.

    The award was conferred as a result of an initiative to automate the process of measuring compliance with complex Meaningful Use objectives. This collaboration turned into a long-term commitment between a community hospital in Michigan and a vendor partner.

    The end result helped the facility, Memorial Healthcare in Owosso, Mich., in a variety of ways. In addition to developing a solution that accelerated and greatly simplified the process for achieving Meaningful Use of its EHR system, the facility was able to use the technology to automate manual reporting processes, to educate physicians on the MU program and to gather documentation to withstand a rigorous CMS audit.

    As a result of the collaboration with Iatric Systems, a new model for tracking compliance was developed, benefitting hundreds of other hospitals that needed an effective way to measure, report and defend their own Meaningful Use results.

    The collaboration began in 2010, when Fear contacted Iatric Systems to determine if there was a way to track compliance with Meaningful Use measures. A partnership was formed to define best practices and new workflows to meet the requirements, and how compliance could be enhanced by technology. In addition, there were technical and cultural challenges to overcome to achieve compliance with the federal program’s objectives.

    The result of the collaboration was the development of a dashboard that shows each objective and required metrics, as well as the latest results for each measure. Color-coding indicates the compliance status at a glance. The application also provides the ability to click on a measure to drill down for granular details.

    Fear was able to use the application, called Meaningful Use Manager, to educate and motivate caregivers throughout the hospital. Memorial Healthcare was able to use it to make steady progress toward attesting to Stage One objectives and receive federal incentive payments.

    The two partners leveraged the Iatric Systems PtAccess™ patient portal to aggregate patient information from the Allscripts EMR system used by physician practices with MEDITECH information from the hospital. In addition to meeting the Stage 2 portal requirements, patients now have all their information at their fingertips, including both physician encounters and hospital visits.

    When the hospital received notification from auditors that CMS wanted to study its records for a Meaningful Use audit, Fear and Iatric Systems were able to easily develop documentation reports and audit responses, because virtually all the data used to attest was available from the dashboard; as a result, the hospital was able to successfully pass the audit.

    About CHIME
    The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,400 CIO members and over 140 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.chimecentral.org.

    About Iatric Systems
    Iatric Systems helps healthcare providers achieve success by delivering the most comprehensive healthcare IT integration. Our products and services focus on data integration, systems integration, and process integration. This allows providers to leverage existing IT investments to meet the growing demands of Meaningful Use, Health Information Exchange, HIPAA, and other industry requirements. During the past 23 years, Iatric Systems has delivered solutions to more than 1,000 healthcare organizations. For more information, please contact [email protected] or visit www.iatric.com.

    About Memorial Healthcare

    Memorial Healthcare is a 150-bed, full-service hospital in Owosso, Mich. Opening its doors in 1921, Memorial offers a comprehensive emergency department, two urgent care centers, outpatient rehabilitation centers, satellite primary care and specialty medical offices, and a cancer/endoscopy center. The hospital has more than 170 clinical staff and over 1,000 employees. Each year Memorial cares for over 28,000 emergency patients, 196,000 additional outpatients and over 4,300 inpatients. The facility provides the region with high-quality preventative, acute and rehabilitative care in its mission to promote compassionate health care through commitment to service excellence, teamwork and innovation. For additional information, visit www.memorialhealthcare.org.

    Contact
    Stephanie Fraser
    Director of Communications and Corporate Relations, CHIME
    734.665.0000
    [email protected]

    Updated: 10/31/2014 9:01:22 AM

    Posted 10.31.2014

  • Truman Medical Centers Recognized for Quality Improvement Initiatives with CHIME/AHA Transformational Leadership Award

    SAN ANTONIO, TX, October 31, 2014 – Quality initiatives, empowered by information technology, have enabled Truman Medical Centers (TMC) in Kansas City, Mo., to improve care, increase patient safety and reduce unnecessary expenses.

    TMC is a participant in the Partnership for Patients, established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), to make hospital care safer, more reliable and less costly. Also, over the past few years, the organization has launched Q6, “Quality to the Sixth Power,” a system wide initiative to drive quality improvement at TMC.

    Key executives from both hospitals in TMC, including Senior Vice President and CIO Mitzi Cardenas, joined forces to launch the Q6 initiative, which led to the formation of multidisciplinary committees to drive quality improvement across clinical workflow, IT and business processes using actionable data from the organization’s EHR.

    The program, led by CHIME member Cardenas and recently retired President and CEO John W. Bluford, earned the hospital organization the 2014 Transformational Leadership Award today at the CHIME14 Fall CIO Forum in San Antonio, Texas, sponsored by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the American Hospital Association (AHA).

    The CHIME-AHA Transformational Leadership Award honors an organization that has excelled in developing and deploying transformational information technology that improves the delivery of care and streamlines administrative services. The award is given to the organization’s CIO and CEO, who recognize the need for a strong partnership between its technology team and executive leadership.

    “It was critical for our organization to establish data-driven processes coupled with action-oriented workflows empowered by the EHR,” Bluford said. “While IT alone is not the solution to optimal medical outcomes, it is a key lever in advancing workflow and enabling real-time decision making, contributing to improved clinical outcomes, administrative efficiency and significant cost avoidance.”

    Participating in the CMS Partnership for Patients initiative reinforced TMC’s commitment to providing quality care to its community and served as an actionable guide for dramatically reducing some of the most common never events, as defined by the National Quality Forum, from reaching the patient, including adverse drug events (ADE), venous thromboembolism (VTE) and hospital acquired pressure ulcers (HAPU).

    Using data from and the capabilities of its Cerner Corp. Millennium EHR system, TMC has been able to improve a variety of clinical processes:

    Using real-time EHR data and order sets, and integrating pharmacists into the care team have reduced ADEs, saving the system money and improving professional satisfaction for pharmacists.

    The development of data-driven approach to integrate a variety of interventions has reduced the prevalence of HAPU by 78 percent in TMC. The approach used data from the Cerner system to develop protocols for moving patients to prevent pressure ulcers.

    A clinical decision support system for VTE enabled clinicians to make informed decisions at the point of care. In the 27 months after the VTE CDS was implemented, some 48 incidents were avoided, avoiding serious patient consequences; 800 patient days were eliminated and approximately $400,000 in costs were avoided.

    “The prevalence of preventable, harmful events like ADEs, HAPUs and VTE make them a nationwide target for reduction,” Cardenas said. “TMC’s ongoing success in preventing these conditions, made possible by its deployment of IT and quality improvement initiatives, stands as an attainable example for other organizations working to prevent these ‘never events’ from reaching the patient.”

    About CHIME
    The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,400 CIO members and over 140 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.chimecentral.org.

    About Truman Medical Centers
    Truman Medical Centers is a not-for-profit two acute-care hospital health system in Kansas City. The TMC Health System includes TMC Hospital Hill, TMC Lakewood, TMC Behavioral Health, the Jackson County Health Department and a number of primary care practices throughout Eastern Jackson County. Recently named one of the nation’s top academic medical centers, TMC is the primary teaching hospital for the University of Missouri-Kansas City Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Dentistry and specializes in chronic disease management, orthopaedics, family medicine, women’s health, and trauma services.

    Contact
    Stephanie Fraser
    Director of Communications and Corporate Relations, CHIME
    734.665.0000
    [email protected]

    Updated: 10/31/2014 9:03:33 AM

    Posted 10.31.2014

  • CHIME & KLAS Partner to Support HIT Industry Performance

    SAN ANTONIO, TX, October 30, 2014 – The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) announced today it has formed a partnership with KLAS Enterprises, the research leader in measuring vendor performance for providers in the field of healthcare IT.

    The partnership between CHIME and KLAS, effective January 1, 2015, is designed to accelerate and enhance industry performance and support all stakeholders in a rapid new era of healthcare transformation. The partnership, announced today from the CHIME14 Fall CIO Forum in San Antonio, will include expanded research, benchmarking, award collaboration, and advocacy support.

    “Like KLAS, CHIME is dedicated to helping our members and vendor partners perform at the highest level,” said CHIME Board Chair Randy McCleese, FCHIME, LCHIME, CHCIO. “This mutually beneficial partnership will help strengthen our commitment to industry high-standards in patient care quality, efficiency and safety.”

    “Providers want to be heard and counted,” added Kent Gale, Founder of KLAS. “Working together with CHIME, we can better amplify the provider voice to help healthcare vendors align their delivery to achieve provider organization success.”

    Under the terms of the partnership, KLAS will serve as CHIME’s primary research organization, and KLAS will work closely with CHIME for best practice information sharing and healthcare information technology research.

    “We are thrilled to collaborate with the industry research professionals of KLAS who have made a superb contribution to healthcare IT performance and standards,” said CHIME President and CEO Russell P. Branzell, FCHIME, CHCIO. “Our members, together with KLAS, will help foster industry excellence and drive healthcare transformation forward.”

    About CHIME
    The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,400 CIO members and over 140 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.chimecentral.org.

    About KLAS
    KLAS is a research firm on a global mission to improve healthcare delivery by enabling providers to be heard and to be counted. Working with thousands of healthcare executives and clinicians, KLAS gathers data on software, services, medical equipment, and infrastructure systems to deliver timely reports, trends, and statistical overviews. The research directly represents the provider voice and acts as a catalyst for improving vendor performance. KLAS was founded in 1996 and has maintained a commitment to being honest, accurate and impartial. Follow KLAS on Twitter  or call 1.800.920.4109.

    Contact
    Stephanie Fraser
    Director of Communications and Corporate Relations, CHIME
    1.734.665.0000
    [email protected]

    Updated: 10/30/2014 7:20:43 AM

    Posted 10.30.2014

  • CHIME & AHA/Health Forum Announce Most Wired Partnership

    SAN ANTONIO, TX, October 29, 2014 – The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the American Hospital Association’s Health Forum will work together to enhance the development of the Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study, a leading barometer that annually measures the growth of information technology use and adoption among US hospitals.

    The partnership, effective on January 1, 2015, was announced this morning during the 22nd annual CHIME Fall CIO Forum in San Antonio, Texas. CHIME, which has been a sponsor of the Most Wired Survey for over a decade, and the AHA will work collaboratively to further develop the survey, build a program to recognize IT use in hospitals nationwide, and encourage IT adoption and performance improvement with results from survey findings. Health Care’s Most Wired Survey is now in its 16th year and is published annually by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine.

    “We’re thrilled to assume a larger, more impactful role in this long-standing benchmarking program that recognizes and supports the critical function of healthcare IT delivery,” said CHIME President and CEO Russell P. Branzell, FHCIME, CHCIO. “Developing and maintaining useful data on health IT integration, as it relates to operational, financial and clinical performance, serves as an invaluable industry resource.”

    Health Care’s Most Wired survey will be incorporated into several core CHIME and AHA/Health Forum activities, with the intent of developing key educational programs, as well as providing data and best practices that can be used for industry analysis and performance improvement.

    “This deeper collaboration with CHIME is very exciting. Both organizations have been long-time advocates for improving health care through IT integration. We look forward to working together to help our collective members through enhanced support, education and recognition that will advance health care IT adoption and performance improvement efforts,” said Neil Jesuele, Executive Vice President, AHA and President, Health Forum.

    “The CHIME Board is delighted to work in partnership with AHA as we focus our combined expertise and resources to ensure the Most Wired Survey remains a valuable tool for our members, their organizations, and the industry at-large,” said CHIME Board Chair Randy McCleese, FCHIME, LCHIME, CHCIO, Vice President of IS and CIO at St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Kentucky. “This partnership underscores our commitment to health information technology as a differentiator in improving care coordination, quality and outcomes.”

    About CHIME
    The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,400 CIO members and over 140 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.chimecentral.org.

    About the American Hospital Association
    The American Hospital Association (AHA) is the national organization that represents and serves all types of hospitals, health care networks, and their patients and communities. Nearly 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, other providers of care and 43,000 individual members come together to form the AHA. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, please visit www.aha.org.

    Contact
    Stephanie Fraser
    Director of Communications and Corporate Relations, CHIME
    1.734.665.0000
    [email protected]

    Marie Watteau
    VP Media Relations
    1.202.626.2351
    [email protected]

    Updated: 10/29/2014 9:02:34 AM

    Posted 10.29.2014

  • CHIME Launches Two New Organizations to Serve Professional Needs of Chief Technology Officers & Chief Application Officers in Healthcare

    ANN ARBOR, MI, October 23, 2014 – The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) announced today the launch of two new organizations to serve the education and professional development needs of healthcare executives in senior technology and application roles.

    The Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Technology (AEHIT) and the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Applications (AEHIA) are the first professional organizations representing chief technology officers (CTOs) and chief application officers (CAOs) in the healthcare setting. Formed to address an unmet need in the industry, AEHIT and AEHIA will provide educational resources on important healthcare technology and IT application-focused issues, as well as an environment where CTOs and CAOs can communicate with, inform, and educate one another. These follow the recent creation and launch of AEHIS, the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security to serve healthcare CSOs.

    “With the establishment of these two new organizations, CHIME has taken an active role in providing these healthcare leaders an opportunity to pool their collective knowledge and advance their skills,” said CHIME Board Chair Randy McCleese, FCHIME, LCHIME, CHCIO. “CIOs are increasingly relying on leaders like CTOs, CAOs and CSOs in order to deliver and manage a complex technology environment, so collaboration among these highly-accomplished individuals is essential to furthering industry solutions and opportunities.”

    “Both of these new organizations will help strengthen the CTO and CAO roles in order to meet the challenges created by the rapid and unprecedented changes in healthcare technology,” said CHIME Executive Vice President of Membership and Professional Development George W. McCulloch, FCHIME, CHCIO. “Our goal is to provide the education and collaboration necessary for these leaders so they can solve issues, share best-practices, and form meaningful, supportive relationships with their peers.”

    AEHIT and AEHIA will operate as separate membership associations under the umbrella of CHIME, a professional organization dedicated to serving healthcare chief information officers (CIOs) and other senior IT leaders. AEHIT and AEHIA members will benefit from CHIME’s twenty-two year history in delivering valuable, high-quality leadership education and networking opportunities.

    “CHIME is committed to not only supporting healthcare CIOs, but also those on the CIO’s executive team,” said CHIME President and CEO Russell P. Branzell, FCHIME, CHCIO. “The CHIME Board recognized our industry’s need for the professional development and peer-to-peer needs of CTOs and CAOs, where professional development educational resources for these individuals were lacking.”

    Interested CTOs and CAOs that apply and are accepted before December 31, 2014 will be recognized as founding members and will receive a one-year complimentary membership. For more information, please visit www.aehit.org and www.aehia.org.

    About CHIME
    The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,400 CIO members and over 140 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.chimecentral.org.

    Contact
    Stephanie Fraser
    Director of Communications and Corporate Relations, CHIME
    734.665.0000
    [email protected]

    Updated: 10/23/2014 8:49:32 AM

    Posted 10.23.2014

  • Healthcare IT Leaders Embrace Federal Interoperability Plans

    CHIME & HL7 see new interoperability roadmap as an important step towards realizing the promise of health IT; Organizations underscore need to incorporate critical standards under development for Stage 3 Meaningful Use

    ANN ARBOR, MI, October 17, 2014 – The federal government’s top health IT advisors on Wednesday made important recommendations on how public and private stakeholders should progress towards interoperability in healthcare. Leaders from the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and Health Level Seven International (HL7) embraced the recommendations of the JASON Task Force, calling them a significant step forward in achieving the promise of information technology in healthcare. CHIME and HL7 also highlighted the need to incorporate critical enhancements to standards currently under development for Meaningful Use Stage 3.

    During a joint meeting of the Health IT Standards and Health IT Policy Committees, federal officials discussed new details regarding a national interoperability roadmap and outlined concrete recommendations meant to improve the appropriate access and use of health data. The JASON Task Force said that a solid foundation for interoperability should utilize public APIs, advance modern communications standards, such as HL7’s Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®), and use Meaningful Use Stage 3 as a pivot point to initiate this transition.

    FHIR is a simple-to-use format that can improve interoperability for a range of technologies, including EHRs, patient-centric solutions and mobile applications. A next generation standards framework created by HL7, FHIR combines the best features of HL7’s Version 2, Version 3 and CDA® product lines while leveraging the latest web standards and applying a tight focus on implementability.

    “Today’s discussion and the recommendations of the JASON Task Force represent an evolution in thinking,” said CHIME President and CEO Russell P. Branzell, FCHIME, CHCIO. “The updated roadmap and the recommendations put forth by the JASON Task Force incorporate a tremendous amount of stakeholder input and articulate the challenges facing our industry much more completely than previous efforts.”

    “The prioritization of standards-based interoperability and a commitment to long-term policymaking will enable healthcare to benefit from information technology in very tangible ways,” said Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD CEO of HL7.

    CHIME and HL7 believe important recommendations were accepted by the full Health IT Standards and Health IT Policy Committees. HL7 and CHIME also support allowing time to make Meaningful Use Stage 3 more impactful with the inclusion of key standards that are still under development. “There remains a disconnect between artificial government timelines and the realities of standards and technology development,” Branzell said. “This highlights a principle concern with how health IT policy is created, adopted and implemented at the federal level.”

    CHIME and HL7 are committed to collaboration in the advancement of health IT initiatives such as FHIR and support government efforts on the interoperability roadmap.

    About CHIME
    The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,400 CIO members and over 140 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.chimecentral.org.

    About Health Level Seven International (HL7)
    Founded in 1987, Health Level Seven International (www.HL7.org) is the global authority for healthcare information interoperability and standards with affiliates established in more than 30 countries. HL7 is a non-profit, ANSI accredited standards development organization dedicated to providing a comprehensive framework and related standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information that supports clinical practice and the management, delivery and evaluation of health services. HL7’s more than 2,000 members represent approximately 500 corporate members, which include more than 90 percent of the information systems vendors serving healthcare. HL7 collaborates with other standards developers and provider, payer, philanthropic and government agencies at the highest levels to ensure the development of comprehensive and reliable standards and successful interoperability efforts.

    Contacts
    Stephanie Fraser
    Director of Communications and Corporate Relations, CHIME
    734.665.0000
    [email protected]

    Andrea Ribick
    HL7 International
    Director of Communications
    1.734.677.7777 x165
    [email protected]

    Updated: 10/17/2014 8:16:29 AM

    Posted 10.17.2014

  • CHIME, HL7 Working Together to Address Challenges to Achieving Interoperability

    ANN ARBOR, MI, October 13, 2014 – As part of a partnership to advance interoperability in healthcare, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and Health Level Seven International (HL7) are continuing to work together to promote a standardized approach for exchanging healthcare information.

    All segments of the healthcare industry are facing growing pressure to deliver improved results, and to do that, the industry needs more collaboration and coordination. Current trends point to the need for a more effective exchange of information. CHIME and HL7 are working together to highlight the importance of developing and adopting standards to achieve interoperability.

    Various models of interoperability, and the necessity of extending the concept throughout the healthcare industry, were key topics at recent HL7 meetings in Chicago, which CHIME sponsored.

    “CHIME is pleased to work with HL7 to promote a standardized approach to interoperable data exchange,” said CHIME President and CEO Russell P. Branzell, FCHIME, CHCIO. “Supporting events such as HL7’s plenary meeting and payer summit highlight the critical work being done to overcome interoperability barriers and that standards-based technologies lead to improved safety, quality and efficiency of patient care.”

    Key highlights of the HL7 28th Annual Plenary meeting included:

    • The potential benefits of a learning health system must be achieved for the industry to make important gains in effective treatment.
    • Standards initiatives, particularly HL7’s Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®), have the potential to address many of the concerns brought out in reports by JASON and other groups that have voiced concerns over interoperability.
    • Because the technology now is in widespread use to improve the health of patients, optimizing information exchange becomes an ethical issue; achieving interoperability is more than just the exchange of data as it directly impacts patients’ lives.

    For an executive summary on the HL7 Plenary meeting, click here.

    At the inaugural HL7 Payer Summit, Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Cigna, Delta Dental Plans Association, Humana and other industry stakeholders were in attendance to discuss the impact of standards on data exchange with payers.

    “We’re taking part in collaboration with every segment of the healthcare industry,” said Charles Jaffe, MD, PhD, CEO of HL7 International. He added, “Our standards can provide the payer community with the much needed link to clinical information. We believe this will enable the transformation of healthcare from pay-for-service to pay-for-quality.”

    Provider CIOs need to take notice of payer insistence of standards-based systems and incorporate those preferences into their IT planning.

    Key highlights of the HL7 Payer Summit included:

    • Payer and provider roles are converging as the industry moves toward a more integrated healthcare system.
    • Payers should be able to integrate clinical and financial data to analyze how care practices affect patient outcomes.
    • As more payers shift to offering value-based reimbursement to providers, payers must be able to measure the value and integrate care in such a way that it meets the needs of employers and their employee populations.
    • The federal government continues to support interoperability by expanding the value of the portfolio of standards to support ACOs, payment reform, value-based purchasing and other administrative priorities.
    • An overview of HL7 FHIR, a new-generation framework that accelerates the implementation and use of standards. HL7 FHIR will enable payers and other industry participants to write apps that that help them get the information they need.

    For an executive summary on the HL7 Payer Summit, click here.

    About Health Level Seven International (HL7)
    Founded in 1987, Health Level Seven International is the global authority for healthcare
    information interoperability and standards with affiliates established in more than 30 countries.
    HL7 is a non-profit, ANSI accredited standards development organization dedicated to providing a comprehensive framework and related standards for the exchange, integration, sharing, and retrieval of electronic health information that supports clinical practice and the management, delivery and evaluation of health services. HL7’s more than 2,000 members represent approximately 500 corporate members, which include more than 90 percent of the information systems vendors serving healthcare. HL7 collaborates with other standards developers and provider, payer, philanthropic and government agencies at the highest levels to ensure the development of comprehensive and reliable standards and successful interoperability efforts.

    About CHIME
    The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,400 CIO members and over 140 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.chimecentral.org.

    Contacts
    Andrea Ribick
    HL7 International
    Director of Communications
    734.677.7777 x165
    [email protected]

    Fred Bazzoli
    CHIME
    Sr. Director of Communications
    630.485.5193
    [email protected]

    Updated: 10/13/2014 1:02:30 PM

    Posted 10.13.2014