Electronic connectivity and better access to information are on tap for health care organizations nationwide thanks to a new agreement between a pair of third-party programs designed to share data across innovative platforms.
Joining forces, the Sequoia Project’s Carequality initiative and the CommonWell Health Alliance undertook a collaborative platform to link over 15,000 health care facilities for the purpose of sharing data, expecting to be operational early in 2017.
Altogether, the partnership represents over 90 percent of the electronic health record (EHR) marketplace in acute care settings and close to 60 percent of the office-based EHR market.
CommonWell is an existing single network for health data sharing, while Carequality acts as a framework for data sharing among multiple networks. The partnership will allow CommonWell subscribers to communicate with Carequality members and access data for more informed patient care.
Carequality Director Dave Cassel called the next-level interoperability venture a “win-win for patients, providers and their networks,” and CommonWell Executive Director Jitin Asnaani added that “there will be no turning back for American health care.”
The AMA, one of Sequoia’s founders, added that because the data sector for health care is likely to experience rapid change in the near future, the joint initiative is designed for scalability.
Dr. James Madara, AMA executive vice president and CEO, said the association is “thrilled” with the agreement, noting that the “alignment will greatly increase the nationwide exchange of health data that can be converted into actionable information for physicians as they care for patients.”
Physicians desiring access to the data sharing who do not already belong to member groups can ask their EHR or HIO for information.
