BELLEVUE, Wash. - June 23, 2008 - AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), Covisint, which is a subsidiary of Compuware Corp. (Nasdaq "CPWR"), and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq "MSFT") today announced a major eHealth initiative - a nationwide information exchange - to enhance the healthcare experience for patients and practitioners alike.
The new eHealth information exchange is a revolutionary approach designed to reduce costs and improve the quality of care while putting patients in increased control of their medical records. It allows consumers using Microsoft HealthVault, a software- and service-based platform for storing and accessing personal health information, to share information with all physicians and healthcare providers connected to AT&T Healthcare Community Online.
A virtual private network (VPN)-based portal, AT&T Healthcare Community Online is founded on two AT&T patents that enable electronic healthcare data exchange among existing systems of healthcare providers and physicians. AT&T Healthcare Community Online offers managed services, applications and authentication services, and promotes the widespread adoption of health-information technology by providing doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, labs and patients with access to test results, prescription records, best practices and medical histories.
The new eHealth information exchange, enabled by Covisint's On-Demand Healthcare Platform and layered on AT&T's patented eHealth solutions and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network, shares information electronically and in a security-enhanced way across the continuum of care - from patient to provider communities such as HealthVault, health-information exchanges and insurers.
The new exchange platform brings together the key elements required to establish comprehensive interoperability and collaboration communities for national, state and local health-information exchanges, enabling such applications as the following:
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Prescribing pharmaceuticals online (also known as "ePrescribing")
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Providing clinical messaging among healthcare providers
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Sharing high-density images, including X-rays, MRIs and CT scans
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Exchanging patient-aggregated information via portable health records, which provides patient profiles, medical history, prescriptions, etc.
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Uploading of data from home health devices such as blood pressure meters, glucometers, etc., allowing for remote diagnostics and chronic disease monitoring and management
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A streamlined clinical and administrative process
This platform is highly scalable and may be rapidly deployed to large and small health-information exchanges as a hosted and managed service by subscribers to AT&T Healthcare Community Online. In addition, AT&T's connectivity offerings, combined with Covisint's platform, enable healthcare organizations to quickly establish high-speed Internet and VPN connectivity to the extended healthcare community.
After broad-based communities are connected, authorized community members will immediately be able to access clinical applications, share health information and collaborate on specific medical cases. AT&T's managed telemedicine services enable patients in rural or underserved areas to consult with medical specialists and even receive examinations in the comfort of their primary physician's office, community hospital or clinic.
"Through our cooperative efforts with AT&T and Covisint, we are giving consumers the opportunity to make informed choices regarding their health and the health of their families by putting them in more control of their personal health information," said Peter Neupert, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Health Solutions Group.
Roman Pacewicz, senior vice president, Regional Business Marketing for AT&T, said, "AT&T is committed to leveraging technology that will transform the delivery of healthcare, enhance operational efficiencies and, ultimately, improve the quality of life. We're proud to be working with Microsoft and Covisint to help enhance the healthcare experience, offering anytime, anywhere delivery of care and medical information."
HealthVault is designed to put people in control of their health data. It helps them collect, store and share health information with family members and participating healthcare providers, and it provides people with a choice of third-party applications and devices to help them manage things such as fitness, diet and health. HealthVault also provides a privacy- and security-enhanced foundation on which a broad ecosystem of providers - from medical providers and health and wellness device manufacturers to health associations - can build innovative new health and wellness solutions to help put people in increased control of their and their family's health.
The Covisint platform enables improved security and accuracy in providing quality care. Covisint's comprehensive interoperability framework enables extended healthcare communities to effectively collaborate between physicians and practices, health systems and hospitals, health plans, labs, and other third-party community members.
The Covisint solution brings together all healthcare data available from a wide variety of disparate systems under the context of a specific patient and aggregates this information into a single portal dashboard, which is then made available to the patient's physician. This capability - along with the ability to perform cross-domain single sign-on - enables all applications and data from the extended healthcare community to be brought together and behave as one cohesive application.
"This alliance focuses on the fundamental problem facing every healthcare interoperability initiative today: privacy, complexity and cost," said Brett Furst, vice president of Health Care for Covisint. "For the first time, institutions, communities and consumers can leverage a security-enhanced on-demand framework connecting patients and caregivers in a matter of days, rather than months - or even years."
Today's announcement, as showcased at the Microsoft HealthVault Solutions Conference in Bellevue, extends the capabilities announced earlier this year by AT&T regarding Tennessee's statewide eHealth information exchange, which is also secured by Covisint's platform.
More information about AT&T products and services for the healthcare industry is available at www.att.com/healthcare [1].
About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. Among their offerings are the world's most advanced IP-based business communications services and the nation's leading wireless, high speed Internet access and voice services. In domestic markets, AT&T is known for the directory publishing and advertising sales leadership of its Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations, and the AT&T brand is licensed to innovators in such fields as communications equipment. As part of its three-screen integration strategy, AT&T is expanding its TV entertainment offerings. In 2008, AT&T again ranked No. 1 on Fortune magazine's World's Most Admired Telecommunications Company list and No. 1 on America's Most Admired Telecommunications Company list. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com [2].
Note: This AT&T news release and other announcements are available as part of an RSS feed at www.att.com/rss [3]. For more information and detailed disclaimer information, please review this announcement in the AT&T newsroom at http://www.att.com/newsroom [4].
About Covisint
Covisint turns the extended enterprise into a competitive advantage for 45,800 organizations worldwide. Covisint's highly available platform provides an on-demand infrastructure for secure collaboration, interoperability and access to information. Covisint streamlines and automates business processes, globally connecting business communities, organizations and systems in the automotive, manufacturing, healthcare, public sector and financial services industries. Learn more about Covisint at www.covisint.com [5].
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass [6] on Microsoft's corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft's Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx [7].
Links:
[1] http://www.att.com/healthcare
[2] http://www.att.com/
[3] http://www.att.com/rss
[4] http://www.att.com/newsroom
[5] http://www.covisint.com/
[6] http://www.microsoft.com/presspass
[7] http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx