NextGen Healthcare Information Systems has signed a contract with Mercy Health System, a Catholic healthcare system serving the Delaware Valley, to deploy NextGen EHR and NextGen Health Information Exchange (HIE).

NORWOOD, Mass. This is a fabulous time to be in healthcare IT, said Scott MacLean, CPHIMS, FHIMSS, a national HIMSS Board of Directors Elect and CIO at Newton-Wellesley Hospital. MacLean made his remarks Wednesday during the New England HIMSS annual Public Policy Forum.

The newly formed Kamuela, Hawaii-based North Hawaii Health Information Exchange (NHHIE) has partnered with health IT company Wellogic to realize patient safety, cost management and consumer satisfaction from communitywide care coordination enabled by HIE.

The Carolina eHealth Alliance has performed its first live demonstration of a new online patient information system and critical data exchange at Summerville Medical Centers emergency department in Summerville, S.C.

It is critical that appropriate guidance--in the form of higher-level principles or recommendations--are used in selecting and applying a particular consent model for electronic health information exchange (HIE), according to a whitepaper developed by George Washington University under contract with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC).

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology recently lanched the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) Direct Project, an initiative that aims to create an easy-to-use process for relatively simple, local health information exchanges. Leading the project is Doug Fridsma, MD, PhD, acting director of the Office of Interoperability and Standards at ONC, who spoke with CMIO about the NHIN Direct initiative.

These are exciting times for the Rhode Island Quality Institute (RIQI), a public-private partnership spurring health IT innovation in the state. The institute received a $6M grant under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 to establish a statewide Regional Extension Center.

Every day, patients, caregivers and office staff fax potentially sensitive information to other providers, agencies or payers, whose identity they havent verified. This type of easy-to-use electronic information exchange has been part of the healthcare landscape for decades. That longtime use, along with some HIPAA guidelines, have built a level of familiarity at least, if not trust.