CommonWell Health Alliance is a non-profit health IT trade association launched a year ago last March at HIMSS13. The primary goal of the vendor-driven Alliance is to advance interoperability through an open membership program to all organizations.
Last week the association announced it has entered a new phase of its mission, expanding availability of its services with an eye toward nationwide expansion. Members will now have the option to sign service agreements with the Alliance and reach a larger pool of providers.Earlier this year, the Alliance launched programs at 10 provider locations in four geographic locations. In the nine months since, more than 20,000 people have connected their records to their providers through CommonWell.
In a press release issued, Jeremy Delinsky, Chairman of the Board of CommonWell and CTO of athenahealth said, “CommonWell is changing the way our industry thinks about interoperability, Today, we are thrilled to announce a nationwide network to manage clinical information, promote greater access to health data and improve care across the continuum. By making these services broadly available, CommonWell is empowering its members and their clients to facilitate better care coordination across disparate EHRs and care settings.”
Cerner, athenahealth,CPSI, Greenway Health and McKesson have all signed formal agreements to offer their clients CommonWell services. New vendors are also signing up, with active members now totaling 14. New members include EHR vendors Aprima, and CareCloud. The.Alliance has also solidified its relationship with RelayHealth, the founding member of CommonWell whose health information exchange technology is at the root of the association’s interoperability efforts.
In a press release issued by Aprima, president and CEO Michael Nissenbaum said, “We’re pleased to join CommonWell Health Alliance’s efforts to enable providers to seamlessly and more securely share patient information. Increasingly, physicians want to leverage information technology to more easily and cost-effectively treat their patients and manage their practice. Aprima is dedicated to easing the transition to this environment for healthcare providers.”
CareCloud Founder and CEO Albert Santalo also released a statement, saying “One of the founding principles of CareCloud was that healthcare should be open, with data flowing freely in support of better patient care. We have admired CommonWell’s work to make this a reality across our industry by bringing the key stakeholders together. CareCloud is excited to join CommonWell, as this will ultimately allow our clients to further support care coordination and efficiency.”