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GE Healthcare, announced that its Centricity Health Information Exchange solution (HIE) participated in the Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc. (VITL) second annual Interoperability Showcase.

VITL is a not-for-profit organization that is facilitating the implementation of electronic medical records ( EMR ) systems using the GE Centricity HIE in Vermont.

An HIE aims to enable care providers to securely share health information across local, regional, and eventually, national health networks. VITL demonstrated how eight different vendor EMRs could feed data into the GE Centricity HIE, enabling various healthcare providers to view and share radiology and lab results, medication histories and other critical patient data. The showcase included two clinical scenarios to illustrate how the GE Centricity HIE can facilitate the sharing of clinical data across the continuum of care to help clinicians make more informed decisions. The scenarios tracked a patient`s clinical data from primary care, specialist and emergency department visits through hospital discharge.

This capability was made possible through VITL`s and GE's adherence to Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) framework and Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) Capability Specifications recommended for ARRA adoption. "With one hour and zero preparation time, we`re able to take seven EMRs out of the box and have them sharing information on an HIE they`d never connected to before. That`s only possible because we`ve adopted these standards and our EMRs are certified by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT)," said GE Healthcare`s Charles Parisot, member of the HITSP board.

"The power of document sharing through (XDS), the use of harmonized (CDA) document content, among other specifications are delivering on their promise and making VITL capable of quick adaptation to changing health IT requirements."

"There is, perhaps, no tool more valuable to a state`s healthcare system than a well-run health information exchange network, facilitating real-time clinical data exchange through a standardized interface," said VITL President and CEO David Cochran, MD. "The VITL Summit 2009 showcased what we believe is a national best practice model that leverages the HITSP interoperability specifications to enable a `plug and play` capability that simplifies implementation of healthcare IT for our stakeholders by reducing installation time and cost."

Recently, the Health and Human Services Department announced that $564 million in federal stimulus funding has been designated for the establishment and promotion of state health information exchanges and to help build the Nationwide Health Information Network.

Physicians participating in the Vermont Blueprint for Health initiative, which provides a web-based chronic care patient information system at no cost to healthcare providers, can analyze patient data in a secure, shared registry that facilitates collaboration with other providers in their community. This allows healthcare practitioners to better track patient progress and more effectively manage the health of their patient populations. GE has been providing standards-based HIE services to support the Vermont Blueprint for Health and other VITL HIE use cases since 2007.

"VITL deserves great credit for its vision and action in developing a statewide HIE and for demonstrating how successful public-private partnership can accelerate value realization from an HIE infrastructure. VITL's initiative is an essential building block for a national HIE as outlined in President Obama`s plan for healthcare reform," said Earl Jones, vice president and general manager, GE Healthcare IT.

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. For more information, visit www.gehealthcare.com.

About Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc.

Vermont Information Technology Leaders, Inc. (VITL) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that operates as a public-private partnership.

Source: GE Healthcare

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