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Membership Program
Earlier this year, NeHC launched a membership program, which was a very important step for the organization. We are pleased to have more than 50 NeHC members so far, including individuals, health information exchange (HIE) organizations, states and public health agencies, patient and quality focused organizations, health systems and health plans, technology companies, consulting firms, health IT start ups, and many more. Member benefits include opportunities to participate in leadership roles in our programs, unique networking opportunities with industry leaders, unlimited access to NeHC reports and education programs, weekly reports of health IT media stories, and the right to vote on the NeHC Board of Directors, the majority of which is selected from our membership.
More information on membership is available here http://www.nationalehealth.org/nehc-membership. If you are not already a NeHC member, we hope you will make it a New Year’s resolution to join.
Technology Crossroads Conference
In partnership with InfoComm International, a trade association representing the audiovisual (AV) technology industry, NeHC hosted the Technology Crossroads Conference last month. The first of its kind, this conference explored the intersection between AV and health IT to spotlight the many ways in which cutting-edge AV technologies and health IT breakthroughs together help accelerate healthcare transformation.
Keynote speakers included U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Chief Technology Officer Brian Sivak, David Merritt with Leavitt Partners, Doug Fridsma with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), and Ceci Connolly with PWC Health Research Institute. NeHC Board members who spoke at the conference included Laura Adams with Rhode Island Quality Institute, Leslie Kelly Hall with Healthwise, Pam Cipriano with Galloway Consulting, Mike Lardiere with the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, Chuck Parker with Continua Health Alliance, and Bill Spooner with Sharp HealthCare.
The feedback on the conference has been fantastic. Attendees were excited about the opportunities to integrate AV and health IT technologies to drive innovation and improve health outcomes. NeHC and InfoComm will continue to collaborate in the future to build on the dialogue and explore business opportunities between these industry sectors.
Health Information Exchange
In the spring, NeHC published the HIE Roadmap: The Landscape and a Path Forward -- http://www.nationalehealth.org/download-hie-roadmap-landscape-and-path-forward. The Roadmap offers a clear picture of efforts being undertaken by both the public and private sectors to create and implement the building blocks for interoperable HIE. It also provides an understanding of how these diverse approaches fit together into a cohesive strategy for nationwide HIE and suggests a four-phase roadmap to help HIE initiatives make progress and become sustainable.
Many stakeholders provided input on the Roadmap and recommended that we use it as a jumping off point for deep collaboration on challenging HIE issues. This resulted in the creation of the NeHC HIE Learning Network. The HIE Learning Network is a collaborative forum of 450 stakeholders working to accelerate the advancement of HIE; develop, validate and disseminate best practices; and encourage active sharing of HIE knowledge and experience to tackle tough issues. A Leadership Council of industry experts was created to provide input and strategic advice, and experts were recruited to chair four workgroups: Addressing Variations in Implementation of Interoperability Standards, Prioritizing and Phasing Implementation of HIE Services, HIE Functions to Support New Payment and Delivery Models, and Business Models for Financial Sustainability.
After five months of intensive meetings with these workgroups, NeHC recently released detailed reports summarizing the findings, conclusions, and supportive case studies -- http://www.nationalehealth.org/catalog/1282. NeHC thanks our workgroup chairs, leadership council, and participating stakeholders for contributing to this groundbreaking work to advance HIE.
Consumer Engagement
This summer, NeHC convened the Consumer Consortium on eHealth Engagement Summit. Over 100 participants attended the Summit and highlighted the work of several organizations, including those focused on community-level patient engagement. Attendees participated in working sessions to provide input on the NeHC Patient Engagement Framework, discuss patient engagement messaging for target audiences, and expand the understanding of current consumer engagement programs. The biggest theme of the discussion was not whether to engage consumers, but how to do so most effectively.
For much of this year, NeHC collaborated with a wide variety of stakeholders to develop and iterate on the Patient Engagement Framework, which was released in November -- http://www.nationalehealth.org/patient-engagement-framework. NeHC thanks Leslie Kelly Hall, Senior Vice President for Policy at Healthwise and NeHC Board Member, for her leadership of this effort involving 150+ participants from across the healthcare industry. The Framework is a model created to guide healthcare organizations through five phases of development to strengthen their patient engagement strategies by leveraging eHealth tools and resources. The five phases are Inform Me, Engage Me, Empower Me, Partner with Me, and Support My E-Community. The characteristics of some of these phases include information and way finding, e-tools and patient-specific education, building up to patient access to records, patient generated data, interoperable records, collaborative care and community support.
In partnership with HealthCAWS, NeHC recently released the Consumer eHealth Readiness Tool (CeRT), a robust survey and business intelligence vehicle aligned with the Patient Engagement Framework. The CeRT provides the ability for organizations to assess their status in relation to the dimensions of the Patient Engagement Framework, focus their improvement strategies and measure their progress. The CeRT includes a comprehensive resource library designed to help guide and bolster strategic development. The CeRT is available for an annual subscription fee based on organization type and size. For more information, visit www.nationalehealth.org/cert.
NeHC University
NeHC University has continued to grow and evolve with more than 11,000 attendees to our programs this year and over 85% of attendees rating the programs as “highly valuable” or “valuable.” We continued some of our most popular series and programs this year, including Health IT Orientation, Spotlight Learning Series on HIE Leadership & Sustainability and Spotlight Learning Series on Consumer Engagement, and added new programs such as Careers in Health IT, Payer Health IT Trends, Health IT in Rural and Underserved Communities and the HIE Landscape. We also offered many programs for ONC, including Meaningful Use Stage 2, Standards and Certification Criteria, the Governance RFI, and ONC’s National HIE Strategy. We will announce the NeHC University programs for spring 2013 very soon.
On behalf of the NeHC team, thank you again for your engagement with us in 2012. We look forward to continuing to work with you in the New Year. As always, I welcome your feedback and ideas, so please do not hesitate to reach out.
With our very best wishes for a joyous holiday season,
Kate and the NeHC team
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