Calif. HIEs sign interoperability agreement

Eight community and enterprise health information exchanges (HIEs) have signed the California Data Use and Reciprocal Support Agreement (CalDURSA), which promotes health data interoperability, according to the California Association of Health Information Exchanges.

CalDURSA establishes the framework for trusted exchange among otherwise unaffiliated organizations, and promotes a specific set of common policies, procedures and lightweight technology for adoption among participants.

The California Trusted Exchange Network (CTEN) supports mechanisms to

  • Send and receive Direct secure messages between individual or organizational providers;
  • Query for and retrieve health records from participating organizations using exchange mechanisms maintained by Healtheway; and
  • Look up individual and organizational provider information, including how to exchange health information with them using federated Directory Services.

To date, organizations that have inked the agreement include:

  • Axesson
  • Dignity Health
  • North Coast Health Information Network
  • Orange County Partnership Regional Health Information Organization
  • RAIN Live Oak HIE and Telemedicine Network
  • Redwood MedNet, Inc.
  • San Diego Health Connect
  • Santa Cruz Health Information Exchange

“The CalDURSA has opened organizations in California to real health information exchange by providing an essential framework that ensures trust,” said Timothy Tyndall, director of RAIN Live Oak HIE and Telemedicine Network, in a statement. “Combined with the CTEN, the CalDURSA establishes an HIE ecosystem that provides a dynamic method for diverse organizations within the State to engage in HIE between agencies knowing all participants are taking appropriate security and policy measures. For a small health information network such as RAIN Live Oak this has meant that we can engage new agencies rapidly and safely in our network, reducing costs and maximizing exchange.”

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