As seen
in Health Data Management, February 2007
By: John McCormack
Asking new acquaintances if they have e-mail seems ridiculous. Yet,
it was only a few years ago that email was getting all the buzz as
people were migrating towards a new mode of communication.
Soon, it will be similarly unthinkable to ask health care organizations
if they are part of a regional health information organization (RHIO).
"We are at that point in time, when there will be a mass transition
- stakeholders will realize that it is essential to participate in
health information exchanges in order to provide care and do business,"
says Ray Scott, CEO at Axolotl, the leading provider of health information
exchange products and services. "Our federated exchange model
makes it easy for any organization to participate in RHIOs."
Why are RHIOs ready for prime time?
Now, for the first time health care providers can participate immediately
in exchange projects, without commingling their data with other participants
and without concerns that their legacy systems must be modified to
meet evolving exchange standards.
Proven Federated Exchange Model
Quality Health Network (QHN) in Colorado has the first proven federated
model. "Our participants wanted a secure, interoperable, community-based
infrastructure for immediate health information exchange," says
Dick Thompson, QHN's executive director. "With Axolotl's Edge
Servers, our healthcare entities maintain complete control over the
patient data made available to the exchange, re-assuring privacy officers
of data security while enabling virtual views of patients' health
records across the RHIO. All our physicians need is a secure Web browser
- easy."
QHN has achieved results that many of Axolotl's other successful
RHIOs are buzzing about:
RHIO
BUZZ - Connecting you to your Community using Federated Electronic
Health Records