The Brooklyn Health Information Exchange will adopt clinical decision support as part of an expansion fueled by two recently awarded New York State grants.
The regional health information organization (RHIO), known as BHIX, will deploy ActiveHealth Management’s CareEngine clinical decision support services. BHIX will also tap ActiveHealth for its personal health record and disease management services.
In an interview earlier this year, Irene Koch, BHIX executive director, identified clinical decision support as an area of expansion. Funding came through in March, when the RHIO received two grants under New York’s Health Care Efficiency and Affordability Law for New Yorkers initiative. The grants total $12.7 million, according to a governor’s office press release.
At BHIX, ActiveHealth’s CareEngine clinical decision support technology will continuously analyze medical data from BHIX, the company said. Physicians will receive evidence-based clinical alerts via the BHIX clinician portal as well as through electronic health record applications, the company said.
Len Greer, executive vice president of marketing and product management, said deploying the CareEngine technology at BHIX is similar to other ActiveHealth projects such as company’s installation at CareSpark, a Tennessee-based RHIO.
“We like the RHIO model because it involves aggregating information,” Greer said, noting that ActiveHealth’s solution can take that information and translate it into something physicians and patients can act upon.
One departure from the typical installation is a pilot at BHIX that aims to address the needs of HIV/AIDS and geriatric populations. The pilot will involve a special-purpose personal health record and the development of customized care plans.
In addition, BHIX will use ActiveHealth’s personal health record program, ActivePHR. The tool notifies a patient via e-mail when an alert or wellness reminder is in their personal health record. Greer said the notice will direct the patient to log in to the secure personal health record system.
Government Health IT presents Rick Friedman, director of the division of state systems for the Center for Medicaid and State Operations with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in this recent eSeminar regarding how the federal Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services is partnering with state Medicaid and health and human services officials to bring Medicaid into the digital age. Paul McCloskey, Government Health IT editor, moderates.
