New initiative to focus on exchange progress

A new initiative aims to unite the industry to provide a standardized framework for connectivity.

Healtheway, the nonprofit public/private collaborative chartered to advance the nationwide implementation of interoperable health information exchange, announced Carequality during the Health Information and Management Systems Society’s annual conference.

Carequality is an open, transparent and inclusive industry-driven effort, according to a release. It will convene stakeholders and facilitate industry consensus to develop and maintain a standards-based interoperability framework that enables information exchange between and among networks.

“The new frontier in achieving nationwide, secure health data exchange involves building upon all of the existing great work across various consortia and networks, and tying it all together into a unified approach for the industry,” said Mariann Yeager, Healtheway’s executive director. “A group of organizations–-including many of those most active today in achieving nationwide interoperability–-approached Healtheway about serving as the neutral convener for industry stakeholders to come together. Together they will work through implementation-level issues to enable exchange between and among networks."

Twenty-six organizations from across the care spectrum--including Epic, Kaiser Permanente, Walgreens and Intermountain Healthcare--have signed on as founding members and another 16 entities have expressed support for the project.