Tom Sullivan, M.D.
Maine's HealthinfoNet Awarded Additional $4.7M from ARRA
Maine’s designated health information exchange, HealthInfoNet, a long time ARRA) stimulus funds. This award has followed directly behind a $6.5 million grant that was received back in February of 2010, and has been perfectly timed to aid in Governor Baldacci’s recent executive order to create two new state entities to expand and coordinate the state’s healthcare IT strategy.
HealthInfoNet partnered with DrFirst in August of 2009 to build and operate Maine’s statewide health information exchange. “Maine HealthInfoNet, through its statewide health information exchange, is tearing down the walls that have kept important patient health information locked away from providers who work in separate practices or hospitals,” said G. Cameron Deemer, president of DrFirst. “Our mutual commitment to creating a community-wide, secure network for clinical document exchange has laid the groundwork for safer and more effective care.”
DrFirst is excited to see this new round of awards from the federal government as they show a sense of confidence and trust in the work that is being done by all parties involved. DrFirst was brought on board to provide Rcopia, stand-alone Rcopia AcuteCare (RcopiaAC) to both ambulatory and hospital providers. These two web based applications allow providers to e-prescribe, collect, display, and document patient medication history information to facilitate medication reconciliation – an otherwise tedious and labor intensive process. DrFirst’s contributions are becoming more significant as the MIPPA reimbursements and ARRA requirements become more defined, and stress the need for a robust, yet efficient electronic prescribing and medication reconciliation system.
Maine’s governor, John Baldacci, states, “with our public and private partners, we have been working hard to improve [the] care that all Maine people receive. All together, the additional funds and the creation of the state infrastructure to support and plan for collaborative efforts to advance health information technology will help Maine meet the goals of the state and the federal government.”
Everyone here at DrFirst is encouraged by the success of this project, and is confident that collaborations such as this will be a large contributor toward the widespread adoption of health IT. Stay tuned to our blog to keep current on the advances with HealthInfoNet, and other DrFirst projects.
For more information on Maine’s HIE visit: www.hinfonet.org/index.html
About Tom Sullivan, M.D.
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Thomas E. Sullivan, M.D is a board-certified specialist in cardiology and internal medicine with over 40 years of clinical practice. He currently works for DrFirst and sees patients part-time in Massachusetts. His expertise in the application of information technology to health care has helped to create an international standard (ASTM) for the exchange of medical record information called the Continuity of Care Record (CCR). With AMA, he was founding chair of their e-Medicine Advisory Committee, worked with the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement, represented the AMA and helped create the Physician EHR Coalition and is past chair of the AMA Council on Medical Service.