HealthShare Connections News Flash No.2: COVID-19 Pandemic
As COVID-19 Rages, HIEs Are Critical Connectors
When officials in New York called for hospitals to operate like one unified health system during the COVID-19 pandemic, I knew they were up against a great challenge. The moment may well have demanded this arrangement, in the interest of avoiding battles for ventilators, personal protective equipment, and other much-needed resources. But the state’s health systems lacked common leadership to steer such an effort. In fact, the only thing they had in common were zip codes and a place on the frontlines of our dangerous new reality.
That’s where Healthix came in. With data from more than 20 million patients and 8,000 healthcare organizations, the Manhattan-based public health information exchange provided an information fabric needed to coordinate a cohesive response. It offered the only real shot for New York’s hospitals to come together as one.
Hello and welcome to the second edition of HealthShare Connections, a newsletter that will help guide you to solutions to the many challenges posed by COVID-19. As head of healthcare solutions for InterSystems, I’ve found inspiration in our customers’ ingenious use of our technology, such as HealthShare, to aid public health agencies, boost care delivery, and save lives throughout this pandemic. In particular, HIEs like Healthix have become bedrock in the push to understand and stop the spread of the coronavirus. The HIE’s role, it turns out, is to enable communities to fight this pandemic together, as we must.
We’ll also provide insights into InterSystems HealthShare. Don’t miss the write-up on the Clinical Viewer, which now supports the creation and display of invaluable COVID-19 data, such as custom charts. We trust this information will come in handy not just for you, but all of your stakeholders.
You in healthcare information technology are no more than one degree from the frontlines. Like these HIEs, you have the chance to fight back against a deadly, complex pandemic. Your work can save lives. We at InterSystems are here to help, however we can.
In this newsletter, we have several customer stories that illustrate the importance of HIEs. There’s the Nebraska Health Information Initiative, whose innovative data-monitoring platform optimizes tracking of COVID-19 cases and test results. Nationally, eHealth Exchange is connecting public health agencies and supporting seamless data exchange that better informs healthcare providers and guarantees patients have a voice in their care. And we have more on Healthix’s work in New York. The goal is to show you what’s making the biggest difference on the frontlines, so you can use these strategies to fuel your future successes.
Contact hsconnections@intersystems.com with questions or suggestions for how we can help you at this time.