Contact:

Phil Duncan
Director of Communications, eHealth Initiative
202.448.2981
phil.duncan@ehealthinitiative.org

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 24.  Trailblazers in transforming the U.S. healthcare system from the District of Columbia and communities in 30 states across the Nation are gathering in Washington this week to spur on the growing momentum for using health information technology (HIT) to improve the safety, quality and efficiency of medical treatment in America.

The centerpiece of this discussion is a two-day Connecting Communities for Better Health Learning Forum and Resource Exhibition convening today, sponsored by the Foundation for eHealth Initiative (eHI). At the forum, leading innovators from across the country will share the strategies they are using to convert antiquated, paper-based medical recordkeeping methods to a modern, electronic model and to use HIT to mobilize information across institutions and our fractious healthcare system. A key focus of the Forum is to provide an overview of the experiences and challenges communities across the United States are facing as they implement HIT and engage in health information exchange to support healthcare quality, safety and efficiency goals.

David J. Brailer, MD, PhD, the newly appointed National Health Information Technology Coordinator at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will deliver keynote remarks at the event. “The Forum will catalyze efforts now under way in communities across America to improve healthcare through the use of information technology and health information exchange. It will also support initiatives by federal policymakers to introduce 21st century tools of health information technology into the practice of medicine, including state, regional and community level health information exchange networks as envisioned by President Bush, Dr. Brailer and federal health leaders”  said Janet M. Marchibroda, Executive Director of the Foundation for eHealth Initiative. 

The Forum brings together community pioneers who are pursuing local projects in electronic health information exchange and taking advantage of the resources offered by the Foundation for eHealth Initiative’s Connecting Communities for Better Health (CCBH) program. These community projects dot the landscape in cities and towns coast-to-coast, from Massachusetts to California. The goal of CCBH is to implement activities on a national, regional and local basis that will lay the foundation for an interconnected, electronic, standards-based health information infrastructure to support patients, clinicians and those responsible for population health. CCBH is funded through a cooperative agreement with the Health Resources and Services Administration Office for the Advancement of Telehealth.

“President Bush has set out an ambitious goal to give a majority of Americans interoperable, electronic health records in a decade. The people at this Forum are the ones who can meet the President’s goal, and the CCBH Forum will provide useful information, tools and resources to get the job done,” said John Glaser, PhD, President of the Foundation for eHealth Initiative and Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Partners HealthCare System.

The CCBH Learning Forum and Exhibition is being held June 24-25 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington. The Forum will provide practical “how to” guidance for communities that are grappling with the technical, legal, financial and organizational change aspects of implementing electronic health information technology. The format will be highly interactive; participants will have many opportunities to talk with national experts in health information exchange and their peers, including representatives from communities that have successfully shifted away from paper record keeping. The insights, resources and tools developed through a range of break-outs targeting key challenge areas related to health information exchange will be available to the public through the Connecting Communities for Better Health Learning Network and Online Resource Center after the event.

“We will hear first-hand about best practices and lessons learned in successful implementations of electronic record-keeping systems, and we will discuss how to best leverage these lessons learned to propel the strong national movement to use interoperable information technology as a catalyst for health system improvement,” said J. Marc Overhage, MD, PhD, an advisor to the CCBH program, a Senior Investigator at the Regenstrief Institute and Associate Professor of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine.

For registration information and details on the general sessions, breakouts and faculty for the Learning Forum and Resource Exhibition, see  http://www.ehcca.com/CCBH/

On the day before the Forum began, eHealth Initiative sponsored two other events intended to help drive change in the way health information is collected and used.

On June 23, eHI held its quarterly Employer and Purchaser Advisory Board, convening a group of large employers and healthcare buyers representing more than 60 percent of insured Americans. One key topic of discussion was exploring how employers can improve quality, safety and efficiency by supporting healthcare stakeholders through incentives as they utilize HIT and mobilize healthcare data across institutions within their localities.

Also on June 23, eHI co-sponsored the annual Capitol Hill Technology Demonstration with the Steering Committee on Telehealth and Healthcare Informatics. The event featured live, interactive technology demonstrations and displays by government agencies and private sector stakeholders. As part of the event, eHI convened a lunchtime panel to highlight communities in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Tennessee that are using HIT and health information exchange to support health and healthcare.

Connecting Communities for Better Health will announce its contract awardees on July 21, 2004 in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Second Annual NHII Conference Cornerstones for Electronic Healthcare conference.  Awardees will be chosen from among 134 community multi-stakeholder applicants in 42 states and the District of Columbia. Awardee eligibility criteria includes involvement of at least three stakeholder groups, a clinical focus, the use of standards, and matching funds. 

About Connecting Communities for Better Health

The purpose of the Connecting Communities for Better Health program is to provide seed funding and technical support to multi-stakeholder collaboratives within communities (both geographic and non-geographic) that are using electronic health information exchange and other IT tools to drive improvements in healthcare quality, safety and efficiency. For more information, go to www.ccbh.ehealthinitiative.org.

About the eHealth Initiative and its Foundation

The eHealth Initiative and the Foundation for eHealth Initiative are independent, non-profit affiliated organizations whose missions are the same: to drive improvement in the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare through information and information technology. 

Both organizations are focused on engaging multiple and diverse stakeholders — including hospitals and other healthcare organizations, clinician groups, employers and purchasers, health plans, healthcare information technology organizations, manufacturers, public health agencies, academic and research institutions, and public sector stakeholders — to define and then implement specific actions that will address the quality, safety and efficiency challenges of our healthcare system through the use of interoperable information technology.

For more information on the eHealth Initiative and the Foundation for eHealth Initiative, go to www.ehealthinitiative.org.

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