New Web Site Tracks eHealth Connectivity
HIMSS, in conjunction with the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems at the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business, has released a new web site that tracks more than 500 community health data sharing projects in the US. Known as the “HIT Dashboard” and based on almost a years worth of research, the site provides a comprehensive (possibly the most comprehensive) listing of RHIOs and other projects linking physicians, hospitals, and payors.
Seven categories of projects are tracked:
- Grants from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ),
- The Doctor's Office Quality-Information Technology (DOQ-IT) program,
- The Medicare Health Support program,
- Regional health information organizations (RHIOs),
- Health information exchanges (HIEs),
- The Bridges to Excellence initiative, and
- Private health-IT projects.
There are three levels of access to the site; the general public can see icons that represent projects on a map, HIMSS members can view project name and location, and subscribers get full access to all data available on each project.
“It seems like the pharma and life sciences companies are quickest on
the uptake,” [David] Clark [Director of Integration and Interoperability for HIMSS] says.
Quickest on the uptake, or have the biggest budgets? Given the immense cost in developing and bringing to market new drugs, there's a ton of money to be saved by pharma in leveraging national electronic health records (based no a standard data set). I would not be surprised if the pharma industry ended up playing a major role in financing EMR adoption, especially among physicians.
UPDATE: An email to HIMSS about subscription costs got the reply that, “we are in the process of repackaging the HIT Dashboard service.”
[Hat tip: iHealthBeat]
