Skip to content
Search to learn about InterSystems products and solutions, career opportunities, and more.

How Greater Houston Healthconnect Turns Healthy Data into Better Decisions

mom and grown daughter looking at tablet on the couch

CUSTOMER: Greater Houston Healthconnect (GHH)

CHALLENGE: Turn the network’s bountiful information into healthy data — data that’s normalized, deduplicated, complete, usable, and useful — to deliver critical insights from the public health level all the way to the point of care.

OUTCOME: During the pandemic, the HIE used HealthShare to support public health departments across the region, ensuring that even the smallest communities could perform pivotal case investigations and contact tracing.

With a coverage area that spans 75 Texas counties, 40 Louisiana parishes, and more than 15 million patients, Greater Houston Healthconnect (GHH) is one of the largest health information exchanges (HIEs) in the United States. Such a broad network means there’s never a shortage of data.

“But we don’t receive healthy data from any of those sources,” says Nick Bonvino, the HIE’s chief executive. For Bonvino and GHH, turning the network’s bountiful information into healthy data — data that’s normalized, deduplicated, complete, usable, and useful — is about delivering critical insights from the public health level all the way to the point of care.

The task is never more important — or more difficult — than during a still-raging pandemic. When COVID-19 first hit U.S. shores, GHH leveraged its interoperable network, powered by InterSystems HealthShare®, to monitor symptoms and complexes before the condition even had a diagnosis code. The HIE used HealthShare to support public health departments across the region, ensuring that even the smallest communities could perform pivotal case investigations and contact tracing. Since then, Bonvino and GHH have launched a public-private collaborative, led by the University of Texas School of Public Health, to take that surveillance a step further and push toward two goals: better COVID-19 research and a unified patient record at the point of care.
 

 

Since the partnership’s inception, the HIE’s technology has organized and analyzed clinical data from an initial cohort of 10,000 patients, a number that has blossomed to more than 1 million.

The spread of additional cases and new variants also created the need to derive insights from this new data. Thanks to HealthShare, that data is transportable into researchers’ and clinicians’ native environments, where they’re using it to make informed decisions about how to handle the pandemic’s latest challenges and prepare for whatever comes next. The unified care record also enabled researchers and public health workers alike to follow COVID-positive patients’ journeys through the healthcare system, including clinical encounters, hospitalizations, and outcomes.

Now, by monitoring admission-discharge-transfer feeds averaging 18 per second, Bonvino’s team provides a window into COVID-19’s geographic and demographic spread across the HIE’s expansive coverage area in real time. GHH uses patient matching technology to uniquely identify each individual. Public health experts and specialists in infectious disease, cardiology, pulmonology, hematology, and more tap into dashboards to understand the relationship between COVID-19 infection and other health conditions.

Of course, the work performed by the HIE and its partners isn’t merely interesting. Clinicians use their expanded understanding of COVID-19 to guide better decisions at the point of care.

It’s only possible, Bonvino notes, with healthy data.

Looking to unlock insights with healthy data? Contact us today.


This story originally appeared the HealthShare Connections News Flash No.7 – October 26, 2021

Other Success Stories You Might Like

UK NHS
Integrate disparate hospital trusts to achieve a comprehensive electronic health record using InterSystems HealthShare® Health Connect Cloud™
Healthcare Providers
Surprisingly, the top three indicators of life expectancy in the U.S. for a given population are per capita nursing home residency, mental health challenges, and prevalence of tooth loss¹. The income level, access to care, stress, and other social factors behind these indicators have a greater impact on health than genetics or access to healthcare services². However, historically, social determinants of health have not received enough attention in clinical care.
Personalized Digital Nurse
Older adults overwhelmingly say they prefer to remain in their homes even as they face increasingly complex healthcare needs. And with good reason. They can retain their independence, remain socially engaged with their communities and, overall, have a higher quality of life, which contributes to improved physical health.
Healthfirst
In the greater New York City area, Healthfirst, a not-for-profit, hospital-sponsored health plan and pioneer in value-based care, recognized the need for collaborative data exchange with providers for quality and improved member outcomes.
ROI and a Healthier Population
The Rhodes Group HCV algorithm and communications using InterSystems HealthShare helps New Mexico managed care organizations avoid millions of dollars in penalties for missing HCV treatment targets
Inpatient-level of Care at Home
A private hospital group in the Middle East is bringing the hospital to patients at home. The care team uses in-home devices to monitor patients and a phone app to deliver device and patient-generated data to its EMR. The physicians and nurses making virtual house calls have all the information they need, using familiar software, for optimal, personalized care.

Take The Next Step

We’d love to talk. Fill in some details and we’ll be in touch.
*Required Fields
Highlighted fields are required
*Required Fields
Highlighted fields are required

By submitting your business contact information to InterSystems through this form, you acknowledge and agree that InterSystems may process this information, for the purpose of fulfilling your submission, through a system hosted in the United States, but maintained consistent with any applicable data protection laws.



** By selecting yes, you give consent to be contacted for news, updates and other marketing purposes related to existing and future InterSystems products and events. In addition, you consent to your business contact information being entered into our CRM solution that is hosted in the United States, but maintained consistent with applicable data protection laws.