Verizon, Medfx Pilot Health Information ExchangeVerizon, Medfx Pilot Health Information Exchange

17 Leading EHR Vendors

Verizon and Medfx have successfully piloted a health data exchange project using Direct Project protocols and Nationwide Health Information Network (NWHIN) Exchange standards to enable doctors at two healthcare delivery organizations to exchange, store, access, and share patient information.

Announced April 5, the pilot is one of the first successful health information exchange (HIE)-based demonstrations to integrate two key federal health IT initiatives -- the Direct Project and NWHIN Exchange -- that are designed to improve care management through secure, two-way exchange of patient health information. The pilot was supported by Verizon's IP networks and other services offered through its Verizon Connected Healthcare Solutions program.

The health delivery organizations in the pilot are Dominion Medical Associates, a Richmond, Va.-based independent, minority-owned physician practice with more than 5,000 active patients, and CenVaNet, a healthcare provider network with 900 physicians and 11 not-for-profit hospitals serving central Virginia. They used MedVirginia, a community-based HIE that provides a platform to link clinical data from physicians, hospitals, labs, and pharmacies.

The pilot project is an example of the ways in which smaller physician practices with limited resources can use federal initiatives and vendor technology to gradually move from paper-based systems to digitized medical records prior to adopting electronic health record (EHR) systems.

Peter Tippett, VP of security and industry solutions at Verizon, said in an interview that once healthcare delivery organizations digitize their patient records and use the Direct Project's tools to electronically exchange patient information securely over the Internet, they are encouraged to take the next step and adopt EHR systems.

"In the case of Dominion, access to the electronic exchange of clinical information, including multiple types of clinical documentation, through the Direct Project is their first attempt to electronically exchange data," Tippett said. "This project has served to acclimate the clinicians to the use of technology and the efficiency it affords them to streamline workflows in their practice. Dominion is fully motivated and well on their way to selecting an EHR."

Health IT Boosts Patient Care, Safety

Under the pilot, Dominion Medical Associates scans diabetes patients' paper-based care-management documents and sends them over the Internet to CenVaNet care managers, via a Medfx-provided physician portal. The portal uses a set of common standards and protocols to digitize and securely transfer the care-management documents, making them accessible on a wide variety of health IT systems.

The data is then tagged and stored in the MedVirginia Solution HIE. As a result, care managers from Dominion Medical Associates, CenVaNet, and MedVirginia are now able to share, store, and retrieve encrypted patient data and better coordinate patient care for the treatment of diabetes and other chronic conditions.

Mark Bamberg, VP of research and development at Medfx, said the harmonization of the Direct Project and NWHIN advanced the project by enabling informed patient care and bridging the communications gap between providers: both those that have and those without EHRs.

"For example, if the care manager receives a referral from a Dominion provider to provide care management services to a military veteran whose records reside at a VA clinic, those records are accessible for a more complete clinical view to support the coordination of patient services," Bamberg said in an interview.

Launched one year ago, the Direct Project, spearheaded by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), specifies a secure, scalable, standards-based way for healthcare providers, payers, and others to send authenticated, encrypted health information directly to known, trusted recipients over the Internet.

The NWHIN Exchange is a collection of standards, protocols, legal agreements, specifications, and services that enables the secure exchange of health information over the Internet. The NWHIN Exchange is a key component of the nationwide health IT strategy and will provide a common platform for HIE across diverse entities, within communities, and across the country.

Michael Matthews, CEO for MedVirginia, said the pilot with Dominion Medical Group and CenVaNet, which started in mid-March, is one of many being conducted as part of the Direct Project. The goal of these pilots is to contribute to new product and service offerings for interoperable exchange, reduce costs for users, simplify the healthcare workflow, and increase coordination and quality of care.

"After three months, we plan to review lessons learned and adjust accordingly," Matthews said of the Dominion Medical Group and CenVaNet pilot. "The next steps include integration of the referrals into CenVaNet's Medical Home Information System, powered by Medfx, for a more efficient workflow."