08 June 2010
GE Healthcare Convenes Thought Leaders to Address Sustainable Health Information Exchanges
GE Sustainability Summit Offers Attendees Key Lessons on Creating Lasting eHealth Model
BOSTON – JUNE 8, 2010 – This morning, GE Healthcare is bringing together some of the industry’s leading authorities to address one of the industry’s toughest challenges --- building viable and sustainable business models that will support post-stimulus Health Information Exchange (HIE) infrastructure.
Digital collaboration and the electronic sharing of clinical information within healthcare communities have the potential to improve healthcare productivity, reduce waste and unnecessary costs, create new care access, and improve care decisions. For this reason the Federal Government, through the Office of the National Coordinator, is making $42B available to drive EMR adoption and care coordination infrastructure. While a considerable sum, the sustainable operation of Health Information Organizations (HIOs) and HIEs remains a dominant concern in the industry.
GE Healthcare’s Global eHealth Solutions business is presenting a full day of thought leadership, interactive discussion, and best practices regarding the development of sustainable business models for HIOs and HIEs.
Industry thought leaders presenting key ideas and strategies throughout the day include:
Micky Tripathi, President and CEO, Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative; Jennifer Covich, CEO, eHealth Initiative, City of Washington, DC; Janet Marchibroda, Office of the National Coordinator for Healthcare IT; Rachel Block, Deputy Commissioner, NY State Office of Health Information Technology Transformation; Simon Kennedy, Senior Partner & Managing Director, Boston Consulting Group; Keith Hepp, CFO & VP of Business Development, Healthbridge (HIE serving Cincinnati and Northern Ky.); Blackford Middleton, Corporate Director of Clinical Informatics, Research and Development, Partners Healthcare System (Boston), and Joel Vengco, Director and Chief Applications Officer, Boston Medical Center.
“While stimulus funding has increased awareness of the transformative potential of clinical information exchange across healthcare organizations, creating sustainable HIE business models remains a heartbeat issue in the industry,” said Earl Jones, Vice President and General Manager of GE Healthcare's eHealth Solutions business. “Issues such as technology, standards, privacy, policy and governance tend to dominate the HIE dialogue. We wanted to bring together healthcare organizations and industry experts to focus expressly on the value of connected care and developing sustainable business models.”
Jones emphasized the importance of opportunities such as this to help providers sort through what may be the most uncertain time in the history of healthcare. “We couldn’t be more pleased and honored by the thought leaders who are sharing their insights and experiences at our Summit or by the overwhelming response we’ve received from senior executives from across the nations who will be joining us for this event.”
GE Healthcare provides Global eHealth Solutions that connect the healthcare ecosystem in new ways, transforming care by helping doctors, nurses and patients access health information and make more informed decisions. Our standards-based, vendor-agnostic health information exchange solutions build on our customers’ existing IT investments by integrating directly with existing EMRs and enabling the exchange of clinical data from other systems. Additionally, non-EMR users can access the same information via the web-based eHealth Clinical Portal. Finally, with solutions such as the eHealth Patient Health Manager, patients can be empowered to take part in the treatment process thereby helping improve patient satisfaction and enhancing long-term provider-patient relationships.
As a strong, stable, technology partner, GE helps customers remain confident in these dynamic times by providing the expertise and support needed to implement a health information exchange and capture the full value of eHealth.
ABOUT GE HEALTHCARE:
Our "healthymagination" vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality and efficiency around the world.
Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.
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