WARWICK, R.I., Feb. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- MEDfx Corporation and Community Health Alliance, Inc., a Virginia-based not-for-profit, today announced their partnership to create a statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE), ConnectVirginia, in the Commonwealth of Virginia. ConnectVirginia will provide the exchange of vital clinical data between authorized health care providers across the state to improve access to health information and ultimately improve the health of all Virginians. Community Health Alliance was awarded a contract from the Virginia Department of Health in October 2011 to establish and operate Virginia's statewide HIE.
The combination of software and services from MEDfx will allow ConnectVirginia to provide a full range of HIE capabilities from one-way secure messaging to bi-directional query/retrieve. "We are fortunate to have MEDfx as our technology partner for the ConnectVirginia project," said Sandy McCleaf, executive director of ConnectVirginia. "Our combined efforts will ensure that Virginians are provided a secure, private, state-of-the-art HIE service that will advance care coordination within our state."
ConnectVirginia's first initiative, Direct Messaging, will launch February 17th, 2012 and will enable secure a one-way "push" of clinical information. With Direct Messaging, enrolled clinicians within the Commonwealth will be able to send secure messages to, and receive secure messages from, other enrolled clinicians. Information of all types may be exchanged including Continuity of Care Documents, lab results, dictated reports, discharge summaries, and scanned documents, among others. ConnectVirginia Direct Messaging is built upon The Direct Project national standards and specifications which provide the necessary security and encryption mechanisms to enable providers to securely share a patient's medical history.
Later this year, ConnectVirginia will onboard Certified HIE participants to ConnectVirginia, giving each Certified HIE the ability to query other ConnectVirginia Certified HIEs for records about a specific patient. If a patient has opted-in with ConnectVirginia, a provider may retrieve, or "pull", health information from other providers in an easy-to-use, standardized Continuity of Care Document (CCD). ConnectVirginia will also leverage the MEDfx infrastructure to join the Nationwide Health Information Network and other initiatives to improve quality of care.
"We are proud to be a part of the ConnectVirginia initiative," said Colin Barry, CEO of MEDfx. "The Commonwealth greatly benefits from the vision and leadership of CHA and ConnectVirginia stakeholders. We look forward to working with CHA to set the standard for data exchange and connectivity among the clinicians in the Commonwealth of Virginia."
About CHA:
Community Health Alliance (CHA) is a Virginia‐based 501(c)(3) organization that was created by a consortium of not-for-profit hospitals in 2002 to improve access to health care services and resources for those in need. Additionally, CHA aims to enhance the continuity of care for patients requiring coordination and communication across multiple providers.
About MEDfx:
MEDfx Corporation is a privately-held company with a long history of embracing emerging technologies in collaboration with other innovative health care organizations. Over the course of its 28-year history, MEDfx Corporation has established itself as a leader in professional services, systems integration and software engineering. Millions of patient lives have benefited from the performance, reliability and engineering excellence of the MEDfx Solution Stack. Find out more at http://www.medfx.com/.
SOURCE MEDfx Corporation