MedAllies to Conduct Demonstration of MedAllies Direct HISP Solution at ONC Annual Meeting

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Nov 08, 2011, 08:42 ET

Chief Medical Officer Holly Miller to participate in two panels, including one focused on transitions of care, at Nov. 16-18 meeting in Washington, DC

FISHKILL, N.Y., Nov. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- MedAllies has been invited to conduct a demonstration of MedAllies Direct Solution at the 2011 Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) Annual Meeting November 16-18, 2011, at the Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel.

The demonstration will highlight the capabilities of MedAllies Direct Health Information Service Provider (HISP) Solution, a tool to advance primary care models that emphasize care coordination and improved care transitions. It focuses on common care transition episodes: patient discharge from hospital back to the primary care physician, a consultation request from a primary care physician to a specialist, and the clinical consultation from the specialist back to the primary care physician. It sends clinical information across disparate electronic health record (EHR) systems in a manner consistent with a practice's established EHR workflows.

The live demonstration will involve two clinical sites in New York, Westchester Health Associates and Prime Columbia Green Medical Associates. MedAllies' Chief Medical Officer Holly Miller, MD, MBA, and Westchester Health's director of IT services, James Catanese, MD, a cardiologist, will demonstrate a closed-loop referral, in which a primary care physician requests a patient consultation of a cardiologist, after which the cardiologist returns the consultation report to the PCP. This transaction uses Direct protocols and standards across the MedAllies HISP.

The significance of this capability cannot be overstated, says Catanese. "Now that clinicians are fully utilizing electronic health records and capturing patient data electronically, it is unacceptable for communication about patients not to be within our EHR workflow and delivered in a fashion we can readily incorporate into our own systems."

He anticipates provider adoption of MedAllies Direct to be rapid because the demand is so great. "Direct technology is the answer to the challenges of communications around transitions of care."

MedAllies will be involved in other aspects of the meeting as well. Miller has been invited to participate in the opening panel at 9:45 a.m., Thur., Nov. 17: "Acceleration and Tipping Points." Former ONC head David Blumenthal, MD, will open the session, and Josh Seidman, the ONC's acting director of Meaningful Use, will moderate. Each panelist will be the "curator" of a specific health IT topic describing the rapid progress that has already occurred or will be possible in the near future. Miller's topic is "transition," in which she will examine the various drivers in health care poised to dramatically improve patient transitions—technological, regulatory and cultural–and discuss how they will help change a fragmented system.

That afternoon at 2:45 p.m., she will also participate in a panel addressing standards and interoperability: The S&I Framework: Helping Shape Interoperability and Improve Patient Care.

The 2011 Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Annual Meeting will bring together the awardees of all of ONC's programs created through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. Details about the meeting are available here.

Miller discusses the Direct Project and how it enhances care coordination in a recent issue brief. Essential information, available immediately, in the right dose: MedAllies Direct delivers on the promise of quality patient care is available here. Other issue briefs featuring MedAllies and Hudson Valley leaders—including two more briefs on the Direct Project—are available at www.hudsonvalleyinitiative.com/press-kit.html.

About MedAllies
MedAllies is the health information services provider that facilitates physician practice redesign to improve efficiency and effectiveness of health care through health information technology. It operates the technical backbone for health information exchange in the Hudson Valley of New York State. To learn more, visit www.medallies.com.

About the Hudson Valley Initiative
The Hudson Valley Initiative is an effort among three organizations—Taconic IPA, Taconic Health Information Network and Community and MedAllies—to revolutionize health care delivery through a shared vision to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of health care in the community. These three organizations leverage health information technology, physician practice transformation and value-based purchasing in pursuit of care delivery that is patient-centered, coordinated, accessible, high quality and efficiently delivered through sustainable financial models. To learn more, go to www.hudsonvalleyinitiative.com.

About Westchester Health Associates
Westchester Health Associates (WHA) is a physician led multispecialty medical group with more than 100 of the area's leading physicians in a large spectrum of medical specialties. WHA has more than 45 offices conveniently located throughout Westchester and Putnam. WHA provides state-of-the-art care in a personal, comfortable and compassionate atmosphere. To learn more, please visit www.westchesterhealth.com.

SOURCE MedAllies