CommonWell Health Alliance announced a number of news and new features last week following the launch of its new platform, with enhanced capabilities and new member companies going live with the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement.
WHY IT IS IMPORTANT
CommonWell, one of TEFCA’s seven qualified health information networks, says alliance members athenahealth, ModuleMD and Solace Health are among the first to go live on the new platform, which will enable CommonWell’s 36,000 healthcare providers to benefit from a more secure and efficient exchange of health information.
According to CommonWell, new enhancements to the platform, developed in collaboration with interoperability provider ELLKAY, include new capabilities for smoother and more reliable data exchange between different health information systems.
The platform is designed to help meet TEFCA’s national standards for health information exchange and expand exchange capabilities to a broader network of care providers. It comes with security enhancements, including HITRUST certification, according to CommonWell — which also touts more streamlined integration and care coordination workflows, and smoother onboarding for service adopters.
Meanwhile, the CommonWell Health Alliance continues to grow with the addition of three new members: AxiomEHR, Nightingale Technology and RXTrail.
Interoperability has expanded from the original six members in 2013 to over 70 members today, connecting more than 36,000 healthcare providers and exchanging more than 7.7 billion health records to support more than 238 million patients.
THE BIGGER TREND
Carequality, the decade-old interoperability initiative (founded a year after CommonWell’s first vendors joined forces in 2013) that includes more than 45 networks connecting more than 50,000 outpatient clinics and 4,200 hospitals, announced last month that it would “carefully join” TEFCA. This could be a significant step forward for nationwide interoperability.
CommonWell, which announced its TEFCA candidacy in 2023 and was “inducted into the team” as QHIN earlier this year, has been working with Carequality on bidirectional data exchange for years.
ON THE RECORD
“The launch of our new platform is an important step forward in our efforts to improve interoperability in healthcare,” said Paul L. Wilder, executive director of CommonWell Health Alliance, in a statement. “It enables us to deliver on our commitment to making critical health information accessible when and where it’s needed. Additionally, the integration of TEFCA services into the platform positions us to be at the forefront of national health information exchange initiatives.”
“Our goal is to provide the most interoperable platform in healthcare, and our long-standing partnership with CommonWell Health Alliance is critical to our success,” added Michael Palantoni, VP of platform services at athenahealth. “We are excited to expand this relationship and connect with CommonWell’s QHIN so we can provide access to a comprehensive national network of data at no additional cost or effort for our customers.”
Mike Miliard is Editor-in-Chief of Healthcare IT News
Email the author: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS.