How do industry initiatives compare and/or contrast with one another?
Nowadays there is a tendency among HIT software vendors to create coalitions or alliances such as the CommonWell Health Alliance (2015) or the Sequoia Project’s Carequality. These alliances aim to embrace the entire healthcare community and ensure the seamlessness of HIE, which is necessary since healthcare information is vital. Naturally, the vendors are still fighting for the customer, but the means of this fight include the improvement of the quality of the product or the provision of unique services. For example, Surescripts (n.d.) prides itself on being one of the US companies “certified for the highest level of information security” (para. 4). Greenway Health appears to use the diversity of its products as a competitive advantage; Athena health has achieved excellence in cloud-based services; Evident claims that it is the “leading provider of EHR solutions and support ideally suited to rural and community healthcare” (CommonWell Health Alliance, 2015 para. 1-4). All the private and public companies are united by the same government-championed goal of improving the healthcare of the US, regulated by the standards set by the government, and work to find their specific niche in the market.
How will these industry initiatives serve to advance our nation forward about the Health Information Exchange?
The industry initiatives championed by Care Everywhere, CommonWell Health Alliance (2015), and SureScripts (n.d.) as well as their competitors provide HIT-related services and products and inevitably advance their quality while acting in line with governmental guidelines and standards. The competition that exists between them leads to the improvement of the relevant technology, infrastructure, and customer service, and results in improved HIT implementation. Besides, since they are willing to unite in alliances, the harmful potential of the competition (for example, restriction of information flow) is reduced.
References
CommonWell Health Alliance. (2015). CommonWell Health Alliance Members. Web.
ONC & HHS. (2014). Report to Congress. Web.
ONC. (2012). Southeast Minnesota Beacon Community. Web.
ONC. (2014). Nationwide Health Information Network Exchange. Web.
ONC. (n.d.). Connecting Health and Care for the Nation. Web.
Surescripts. (n.d.). Why Choose Surescripts. Web.