Healthcare vendors and organizations came together at the 2016 CommonWell Health Alliance Annual General Meeting and Fall Summit Oct. 5-7 to continue the discussion on “interoperability for the common good.” For the second year in a row, MEDITECH was proud to host the event in our state-of-the-art Joanne Wood Conference Center and Auditorium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
The event commenced with opening remarks and a year in review report from Jitin Asnaani, Executive Director of CommonWell. While last year’s meeting focused on deployment strategies, it’s evident the Alliance is growing and making strides in the industry as healthcare organizations recognize the value the network brings to providers and patients. Many member organizations are turning CommonWell’s concepts into a reality, with thousands of LIVE sites now utilizing the CommonWell network. With the growing trend of healthcare taking place in post-acute areas, CommonWell has expanded its network into rehab, skilled nursing facilities, home care, and will continue this expansion to other care areas.
It’s amazing to see how far CommonWell has come in just one year. The Alliance is deploying a scalable solution that seamlessly integrates with the care providers’ workflow for real-time health data exchange. Here are some recent impressive achievements shared during the meeting:
- From Nov. 2014 to April 2015, there were just over 60 deployed sites. Today, there are over 4,700 LIVE sites and 3,200 sites signed.
- There are 58 members in the CommonWell Alliance – CommonWell also welcomed five new members during the event.
- Awareness and buy-in to the Alliance continues to grow, with 2/3 acute EHR vendors and 1/3 ambulatory EHR vendors now part of the Alliance. Leaders in post-acute care, imaging, patient portals, lab, retail pharmacy etc., continue to join the Alliance.
- In the past five months, the Alliance has increased from 29 million to 41 million records.
- The first Patient Portal and Home Health services recently went LIVE within the network.
The three-day conference provided attendees the opportunity to participate in committee meetings and contribute to various breakout sessions centered around member engagement, subscribing to services, value statements, product roadmaps, use case activities, and much more.
As a contributing member of CommonWell, MEDITECH is proud to partner with the Alliance in fulfilling the mission and vision of breaking down nation-wide data exchange barriers. It’s inspiring to witness numerous healthcare vendors and organizations across the continuum, some even direct competitors, come together to make a difference in the future of health data exchange and shaping future policy related to HIT and interoperability.
It truly was a pleasure and honor for MEDITECH to host the meeting and have so many healthcare leaders in our facility coming together to collaborate and contribute to CommonWell’s important strategies and goals. As CommonWell Health Alliance advances, there’s a true sense of camaraderie as we work together toward better and safer care for patients across the continuum of care. On behalf of MEDITECH, I look forward to continuing to foster these relationships, growing and strengthening the Alliance, and creating an industry-wide network of patient data.
Helen Waters, Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing, MEDITECH