NEW ORLEANS – The Department of Health and Human Services will award an $800,000 federal contract aimed at promoting healthcare IT collaboration among state leaders.
The contract with the American Health Information Management Association’s Foundation of Research and Education, called FORE, is a one-year extension of a previous award and helps continue the work of state level health information exchange projects.
Robert Kolodner, MD, interim national health information technology coordinator, announced the extension last month at HIMSS07, the annual conference of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, in New Orleans.
“The contract builds on and extends the important work completed to date by FORE in developing emerging best practices and practical tools for state level health information exchange initiatives,” Kolodner said. “It will expand the body of knowledge of emerging best practices that will be helpful to state level and regional HIEs.”
Linda Kloss, AHIMA’s CEO, said the work would accelerate the learning on state-level health information exchange.
“This is a critical time for state-level HIE initiatives as they develop firm organizational footing, financial sustainability, and demonstrate their value to the citizens of their states and to the nationwide health IT transformation,” Kloss said.
An expanded project steering committee headed by the National Conference of State Legislatures will lead the work, which will include studies on best practices, financial sustainability and HIE information practices, according to Theresa Reynolds, public relations manager at AHIMA.
HIMSS and eHealth Initiative will collaborate on the contract, Reynolds said.