Blog : Allcharts: better, faster, less expensive healthcare
CIHIE's Lauren Wiseman (left) shows allcharts™ to Laura Zaremba, director of the state's office of health information technology.
Central Illinois Health Information Exchange (CIHIE) is officially open for business.
“I began working on this project when it was just a conversation being bantered around a conference table,” said CIHIE Interim Executive Director Joy Duling. "Two-and-a-half years later, we’re actually here with technology that works, providers who are connected. Clinicians have put their hands on it — they’ve sent some test messages. It’s actually real — it’s here — it’s tangible.”
Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) are networks of electronic health records, allowing for the secure sharing of patient information. CIHIE connects participating providers in a 20-county region of central Illinois.
Duling and other CIHIE representatives announced the launch of the CIHIE software allcharts™, along with its secure clinical messaging, to the media on Jan. 26.
“We’ve done a great job as hospitals of automating what we do within the hospitals and the hospital systems. What we haven’t done a great job on is finding out what else is out there and how we can connect it,” said Steve Riney, the Chief Information Officer at Methodist Medical Center.
“It’s a lot of bits and bytes. It’s a lot of technology talk. It’s a lot of really hard work. But this is about improving patient care,” said Director of Illinois Office of Health Information Technology Laura Zaremba,who is coordinating with regional HIEs for an eventual statewide exchange. At the same time, she is also planning for an eventual nationwide connection, starting with border states.
Easier access to more complete medical records is seen as a requirement in improving care.
“I hear better, faster, and less expensive. Who can argue with that?” CIHIE Board Chair Dr. Gail Amundson said following the presentations.
Duling often uses her own story to illustrate the value of allcharts™. During a recent battle with thyroid cancer,she left pieces of her healthcare story with physicians, surgeons, and specialists all across Peoria.
“I’m fully convinced that never at any time did any of those providers ever see the whole story all together in one place. That is why I am passionate about this,” she said.
Get news on CIHIE
Allcharts™ pulls patient information and arranges it in a logical format, much like an Expedia for your health records. Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) provides the technology platform for allcharts™.
“When we saw the demo for ICA’s product, it was kind of like the red sports car on the showroom floor,” said David Miller, CIHIE Technical Project Lead.
Secure clinical messaging is like email sent within allcharts™, designed to comply with HIPPA requirements. Easter Seals is looking to the feature to help close the gap between the time a physician issues a referral and when the patient actually receives care, according to Kory Kaeb, VP of Operations.
“From what I’ve seen of secure clinical messaging, I’m looking forward to finding ways to streamline (the referral) process while continuing to promote confidentiality,” Kaeb said, addressing the biggest concern associated with health information technology.
“Your information is going to be secure,” Riney said. “Access of this information is going to be different than your paper-based record or a fax that is sent to someone. It is going to have a digital fingerprint on it.” Therefore, patients will be able to know who has accessed their records.
Peoria-based company A5/CIAN will be hosting the data. The security-focused firm will be guarding the information from intrusion.
The allcharts™ interface
CIHIE is being trusted to exchange information that has traditionally been treated as highly sensitive. The Human Service Center of Peoria will be using allcharts™ to help treat addiction and mental health issues. Representative Fred Nirdé stressed the need for close coordination with primary care in behavioral health treatment, quoting US Surgeon General David Satcher: “There is no health without mental health.”
“I will submit to you that the reverse is also true: There is no mental health without health,” Nirdé said. Those with severe and persistent mental illness live an average of 25 years less than those that do not, he said. However, they die of the same things as everyone else, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, COPD, etc.
Allcharts™ is the product of a unique collaboration that in some cases, involves organizations that are in direct competition with each other.
“This is so invigorating and exciting. It just makes me feel really hopeful about the direction healthcare is going,” Farrell Davies, CEO of Heartland Community Health Clinic, said. “Even though there are a lot of unknowns out there, this community, as if often does, has come together, is going to be ahead of the curve, and we’re going to be the model.”