Massachusetts Health Data Consortium Announces the Launch of MedsInfo-ED

Title: Message

October 27, 2004 09:01 
AM US Eastern Timezone 

New Patient 
Prescription Safety Tool Brings Electronic Health Information Exchange to Area 
Hospitals WALTHAM, 
Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 27, 2004--The Massachusetts Health Data Consortium 
(MHDC), a convener of New England's key healthcare organizations, today 
announced the launch of a new patient safety tool called MedsInfo-ED 
(Prescription History in the Emergency Department). The goal of this electronic 
health information exchange project is to use Internet technology to make 
patient prescription history information more accurate and accessible to 
healthcare providers in hospital emergency departments. MedsInfo-ED supplements 
the information that patients verbally provide to the emergency department 
staff. 

The Massachusetts Health Data Consortium recently received a $400,000 
contract for the development of MedsInfo-ED from the Foundation for eHealth 
Initiative, through its Connecting Communities for Better Health (CCBH) program. 
The award is a direct result of a national emphasis on local efforts to support 
interoperable, electronic health information which President Bush and U.S. 
Health and Human Services Secretary, Tommy Thompson called for earlier this 
year. This contract will be matched by MHDC members. 

"We, at the eHealth Initiative, are very excited about the Consortium's new 
patient safety tool," said Janet M. Marchibroda, Chief Executive Officer, 
eHealth Initiative, and Executive Director of the Foundation for eHealth 
Initiative. "The MHDC's work on this project is a great example of the key role 
communities play in advancing an interconnected, interoperable health 
information infrastructure that leads to better care." 

The New National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, David J. 
Brailer, M.D. Ph. D., hails the project as taking immediate action steps to help 
advance Secretary Thompson's 10-year plan to transform the delivery of 
healthcare. 

"Within 90 days of its contract award, The Massachusetts Health Data 
Consortium has responded to Secretary Thompson's call to action to adopt health 
information technology by moving aggressively to implement a local patient 
safety initiative that will improve the quality of care patient's receive in 
emergency rooms across the New England area." 

Primary Pilot Sites: 

Three Massachusetts hospitals are piloting MedsInfo-ED including: Emerson 
Hospital, Concord, MA, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Boston 
Medical Center (BMC), Boston, MA. The hospitals represent medical teaching and 
community based facilities, with a combined volume of approximately 14,000 
emergency patients per month. Emerson Hospital is the first hospital to launch 
MedsInfo-ED in the emergency department. 

The initial sources for prescription history data include: Blue Cross Blue 
Shield of Massachusetts, Group Insurance Commission (Massachusetts state 
employees and retirees), Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, MassHealth (Medicaid), 
Neighborhood Health Plan and Tufts Health Plan. 

Alan Woodward, M.D., chief of emergency medicine at Emerson Hospital, is 
enthusiastic about the new system. "Anyone who works in an emergency department 
will agree that this is the kind of information needed to provide our patients 
with the best possible care," says Woodward, who currently serves as president 
of the Massachusetts Medical Society. "There is no question that MedsInfo-ED 
helps to address the important goal of enhancing patient safety and reducing 
medical errors." 

"The Massachusetts Health Data Consortium is thrilled to pioneer this 
clinical connectivity project locally in Massachusetts," said Gordon C. 
Vineyard, M.D., President and Chairman of the Board, MHDC. "The value of 
MedsInfo-ED will be measured by improved outcomes, efficient workflow, 
ultimately lower total costs of care and reduced errors." 

MedsInfo-ED was developed to address the type of errors that were described 
in the Institute of Medicine Report's landmark study "To Err is Human," using 
clinical data exchange. As many as 98,000 patients die each year nationally, as 
a result of medical errors that could have been prevented, according to the 
study. 

MedsInfo-ED is a project of the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium's 
MA-SHARE Program (Simplifying Healthcare Among Regional Entities), launched last 
year by the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium's CIO Forum. The CIO Forum 
includes 47 information technology leaders from health plans, hospitals, 
government agencies and information technology suppliers throughout 
Massachusetts. The MA-SHARE program is presently funded by a cornerstone grant 
from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and has additional funding from 
Fallon Community Health Plan, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Neighborhood Health 
Plan, Partners HealthCare System, Tufts Health Plan and the Massachusetts 
Medical Society. 

"MA-SHARE works to facilitate and develop regional collaborative projects for 
accurate, efficient, safe and cost effective inter-organizational exchange of 
healthcare data using information technology and national standards," said 
Elliot Stone, CEO, Massachusetts Health Data Consortium. 

The MedsInfo-ED project is sponsored by the Alliance for Health Care 
Improvement, a collaboration of medical directors from six Massachusetts-based 
health plans. 

"The health plans are pleased to support the development of this critical 
project to foster electronic health information exchange. MedsInfo-ED will 
leverage all payer pharmacy data and technology integration to enhance care and 
make improvements to the current system of healthcare delivery in the 
Commonwealth," said Roberta Herman, M.D., current President, Alliance for Health 
Care Improvement and Chief Medical Officer, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. 

Additionally, the MedsInfo-ED project is managed by an 11 member oversight 
committee. 

Information technology support for the MedsInfo-ED project is provided by Zix 
Corporation (www.zixcorp.com), Computer Sciences Corporation (www.csc.com), Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (www.harvardpilgrim.org), MassHealth via Medicaid (www.massgov.com) RxHub (www.rxhub.net), Caremark (www.caremark.com) and Express Scripts (www.express-scripts.com). 

All legal and regulatory issues to release this prescription history 
information have been satisfied. 

About the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium (MHDC): 

The Massachusetts Health Data Consortium was founded in 1978 by the state's 
major public and private healthcare organizations to serve as a neutral agency 
to collect, analyze and disseminate health care information. In 1995, Elliot M. 
Stone, the Consortium's CEO, helped found the Affiliated Health Information 
Networks of New England project, currently consisting of the chief information 
officers of 37 healthcare organizations and 10 information technology 
companies/consultants "to improve the region's health care information 
infrastructure by fostering the growth of a variety of health information 
networks, building on systems already in place, while encouraging collaboration 
and standardization among a network of networks." In 2003, the Consortium 
created MA-SHARE, LLC to oversee the implementation of community projects for 
both administrative simplification and clinical data exchange. For more 
information, visit http://www.mahealthdata.org/ma-share/projects/medsinfo.html.

 

Ed Dodds 
 
<e-dodds.communications/> 
615. 429. 8744 cel | tel 
508 . 632 . 0370 fax 
ed1dodds aim 
49457096 
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