Industry Insight

ELLKAY Launches Women In Health IT Initiative

ELLKAY, LLC, a leader in health care connectivity for more than 18 years, is introducing an initiative to recognize women leaders who are making an impact in the HIT industry. As an HIT company composed of more than 50% women, the leadership of ELLKAY wants to inspire women to join the industry by highlighting the experience and work that drives the female HIT leaders of today.

“There is still a disparity in the presence of women in our industry,” says Shreya Patel, ELLKAY’s chief innovation and product officer. “If we can share our stories and our passion for innovation in HIT, perhaps this will help inspire other women to take the leap into the tech sector. At ELLKAY, our experience has been that innovation in the industry benefits from having a diverse and balanced workforce.”

According to The Atlantic, while 57% of occupations in the workforce are held by women, in the tech industry there is a less than 25% presence of women in associated occupations. ELLKAY hopes to join in the efforts in exposing women to careers in technology, specifically HIT, by telling the stories of women who are leading in the field.

Tressa Springmann, senior vice president and CIO of Lifebridge Health and a participant in the ELLKAY program, shares, “As a woman in health care IT, it is an honor to be a partner of ELLKAY’s Women In Health IT program. I am excited about the opportunity to share my experiences, expertise, and vision for the future of health care, along with the transformations I believe we will see in the health care industry in the upcoming years.”

If you know of a woman in the HIT industry who is an inspiration to the next generation of women in HIT, visit www.ellkay.com/women-in-health-IT for more information about this initiative or to nominate them.

— Source: ELLKAY, LLC

The Sequoia Project Launches Data Usability Workgroup

The Sequoia Project, a nonprofit and trusted advocate for nationwide health information exchange, has announced the new Data Usability Workgroup to tackle barriers to interoperability.

The workgroup, which is part of The Sequoia Project’s Interoperability Matters cooperative, will develop specific implementation guidance on clinical content for health care professionals in order to improve health information exchange. The Sequoia Project encourages all health care and interoperability stakeholders to participate to ensure development of comprehensive and inclusive guidance that will further improve the workflows and usability of data exchanged among health care communities and networks.

“We’re excited to work with the broader health care and health IT community to address important barriers to interoperability,” says Mariann Yeager, CEO of The Sequoia Project. “We value input from all stakeholders who have successfully laid the infrastructure of sharing and are ready to take a closer look at how we can improve the value of the data actually exchanged across that infrastructure. We invite differing views and know that the workgroup will reach a consensus for what’s best for the public good, not only for immediately enhancing the usability of data exchanged today but laying the groundwork required to deliver on the promise of future technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence.”

The first goal of the Data Usability Workgroup is to develop three implementation guides focusing on data usability requirements for provider-to-provider, provider-to–public health agency, and health care entity–to-consumer information exchange. Since these use case topics are broad, the workgroup will identify priority elements to address within each of these use cases for its first deliverable.

“This new workgroup is a broadening, next evolution of a similar previous industry effort I was a part of in 2018,” says Steven Lane, MD, MPH, FAAFP, clinical informatics director, privacy, information security and interoperability at Sutter Health and chairman of The Sequoia Project Board of Directors. “That small but passionate group has reached consensus on guidance to improve interoperable data exchange across their users, and now The Sequoia Project will build on this work to achieve even greater government and industry participation and adoption of the future implementation guides.”

The workgroup will meet every Thursday through April 1, 2021, and is open to all interested public and private stakeholders, regardless of any affiliation with The Sequoia Project, ensuring diverse membership across the health care landscape. The meeting schedule will be revisited in April for Phase 2.

— Source: The Sequoia Project

US Department of Defense to Implement 3M Computer-Assisted Coding Technology Worldwide

3M Health Information Systems has been awarded a contract by Leidos, prime contractor to the US Department of Defense (DoD) on the Defense Healthcare Management System Modernization initiative, for components of the 3M 360 Encompass System platform, 3M’s suite of software applications for medical records coding and documentation. 3M 360 Encompass System will promote improved revenue cycle operations across DoD Military Health System facilities worldwide and help achieve more accurate patient data to support high-quality care for the nation’s 9.6 million active and retired service members and their families.

As the exclusive provider of computer-assisted coding technology to US military treatment facilities, 3M will support DoD interoperability goals, a joint effort with the VA to unify patient records on one system, allowing caregivers to access and share information for improved patient treatment and continuity of care. The contract provides for implementation of 3M 360 Encompass components at an initial operating capability site in the Military Health System. Additional task orders will direct global deployment of 3M 360 Encompass throughout the entire Military Health System.

Under the agreement with Leidos, the DoD Military Health System will implement 3M 360 Encompass computer-assisted coding technology for coding and reimbursement of facility services at 55 US military hospitals and associated medical clinics worldwide.

— Source: 3M