2007.10.19 - HHS AWARDS $22.5M FOR ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS NATIONWIDE NETWORK TRIAL IMPLEMENTATION CONTRACT

10.19.2007, Bethesda, MD, USA – Argosy Omnimedia, Inc. has announced a federal subcontact award as an IBM team member for the Nationwide Health Information Network Trial Implementation contract.

On October 5, 2007, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it would award contracts for trial implementation of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). Nine health information exchanges [HIEs], which are “networks that securely connect electronic health records for providers and patients,” are slated to receive awards totaling $22.5 million to “create a secure foundation for basic health information exchange between select HIEs upon which more complex functions will be possible over time.”

The awardees are:

• CareSpark—Tricities region of Eastern Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia
• Delaware Health Information Network—Delaware
• Indiana University—Indianapolis metroplex
• Long Beach Network for Health—Long Beach and Los Angeles, California
• Lovelace Clinic Foundation—New Mexico
• MedVirginia—Central Virginia
• New York eHealth Collaborative—New York
• North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance, Inc.—North Carolina
• West Virginia Health Information Network—West Virginia

This funding is being awarded in an effort to reach the President’s goal of establishing a nationwide electronic health records system by 2014. The nine HIEs will work together to “demonstrate the exchange of private and secure health information among providers, patients and other health care stakeholders."

According to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, “Trial implementations of the Nationwide Health Information Network will bring us closer to a health IT system that will improve quality of care, increase efficiencies in health care, and improve disease prevention.”

The Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) is the critical portion of the health IT agenda intended to provide a secure, nationwide, interoperable health information infrastructure that will connect providers, consumers, and others involved in supporting health and healthcare. The NHIN will enable health information to follow the consumer, be available for clinical decision making, and support appropriate use of healthcare information beyond direct patient care so as to improve health.

The NHIN seeks to achieve these goals by:

• Developing capabilities for standards-based, secure data exchange nationally
• Improving the coordination of care information among hospitals, laboratories, physicians offices, pharmacies, and other providers
• Ensuring appropriate information is available at the time and place of care
• Ensuring that consumers’ health information is secure and confidential
• Giving consumers new capabilities for managing and controlling their personal health records as well as providing access to their health information from EHRs and other sources
• Reducing risks from medical errors and supporting the delivery of appropriate, evidence-based medical care
• Lowering healthcare costs resulting from inefficiencies, medical errors, and incomplete patient information
• Promoting a more effective marketplace, greater competition, and increased choice through accessibility to accurate information on healthcare costs, quality, and outcomes

The Office of the National Coordinator is advancing the NHIN as a ‘network of networks,” built out of state and regional health information exchanges (HIEs) and other networks so as to support the exchange of health information by connecting these networks and the systems they, in turn, connect.

Argosy Omnimedia, Inc. (“Argosy”) is an enterprise information technology consulting firm focused on e-Business, cybersecurity, information assurance and privacy, custom software development and integration. Since the formation of the company in 1997, Argosy has been engaged by over 100 clients throughout the public and private sectors of Healthcare, Life Sciences, Retail, Investment/Finance, Chemicals, Energy, Entertainment, Airline, and Digital Media to lead or support enterprise IT initiatives and projects. Argosy has built a strong track record in applying IBM, Microsoft, Sun, Oracle, and Java technology to help clients address their mission critical business and research needs and enabling them to exceed their business objectives. Argosy’s information management and technology development practice encompasses a full range of services of the information technology (IT) life-cycle beginning with business concept development and expanding into comprehensive turn-key, secure, implementation of IT systems through end-to-end project management ownership.
 

For more information, contact:

Rob Montgomery
6701 Democracy Blvd., Suite 300

Bethesda, MD 20817

301.816.9373(O)
240.597.0834 (F)
rob.montgomery@argoc.com