Coordinated Care Management

February 13, 2012

AT&T's Clinical Message Exchange to Drive IHIE Vision of Connected Healthcare



The Indiana Health Information Exchange, Inc. (IHIE) will be deploying AT&T Healthcare Community Online's Clinical Message Exchange to drive its vision of a comprehensively connected healthcare exchange across the nation. IHIE coordinates with hospitals, healthcare facilities, clinics, and physician practices across Indiana to collate health-related information in a way which makes it possible to access this information anytime, anywhere for making any improvements to care coordination and patient health. The aggregated clinical information is then used within the DOCS4DOCS service, Quality Health First Program and the Indiana Network for Patient Care.

IHIE has however, been experiencing an explosion in data integration which has given rise to the need for an advanced and reliable scalable solution which can ensure that more hospitals and healthcare facilities can be included within the exchange. The Covisint powered AT&T Healthcare Community Online tool will ensure that IHIE can expand support to its present community while also addressing the needs of providers and work on business expansion options.  

In a release, Harold J. Apple, President and Chief Executive Officer of IHIE, said, "Our vision is to establish a model of health information exchange for the nation. We operate the most advanced system for connecting disparate healthcare IT systems in the nation, and AT&T is helping us take our efforts to the next level."

The initial deployment of the AT&T Clinical Message Exchange has been planned for three key hospitals. The solution is expected to deliver a clinical interface integration platform which is secure, scalable, and flexible. Additionally, IHIE and AT&T will also be collaborating over the introduction of a professional services organization for the delivery of planning and advisory services covering the various aspects of health information exchange.  

Randall Porter, Assistant Vice President, AT&T ForHealth, said, "The coordinated collaborative care market is on the brink of transformation. We believe that the future of healthcare is a connected one - where information will be exchanged across states, regions, and eventually across the nation. Our new relationship with IHIE as the largest exchange across the country will be essential to realizing that vision."

Features of the AT&T Clinical Message Exchange include any-to-any messaging which will effectively automate point-to-point communication and a messaging hub which will support translation and routing for all messages and tracking of messages for audit logging for HIPAA and HITECH purposes. Additionally, the solution will deliver secure communication and collaboration functionalities over network domains and organizations.


Calvin Azuri is a contributing editor for HealthTechZone. To read more of Calvin’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Rich Steeves
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