The American Academy of Family Physicians will offer its primary care members a Web-based service that enables secure electronic communication between providers over the Surescripts network.
The Electronic Prescription network will use a representation of the Direct Project standards and services for simple health information exchanges, according to an announcement Feb. 15 by AAFP and Surescripts.
AAFP Physicians Direct will be available to 75,000 primary care providers across the U.S., and will be offered as a monthly subscription service for $15 per physician user.
The Direct Project is an effort of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to extend health information exchange to individual physicians and small practices who have limited resources and technology assets, so they can meet meaningful use requirements for simple exchanges of referrals, patient summaries and lab results with other providers.
“AAFP Physicians Direct is a health IT innovation that will help providers achieve meaningful use and support continuity of care, which will reduce costs and medical errors,” said Dr. Farzad Mostashari, ONC’s deputy national coordinator for programs and policies.
The Direct Project is a streamlined version of the standards and services of the nationwide health information network (NHIN) that enables providers to exchange patient data securely through the Internet. With Direct, providers send data through secure messaging.
AAFP physicians will be able to connect to the Surescripts network and share information securely through the new AAFP Physicians Direct Web portal or a choice of electronic health record systems.
AAFP’s new service, which is available to physicians and other health care providers serving large and small communities, will help “ensure that everyone can take part and benefit from the digital transformation of the nation’s health care system,” Totonis said.
The Surescripts network will enable providers to exchange clinical data with each other by eliminating communication barriers due to incompatible technology and a lack of interoperability standards.
Dr. David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health IT, has said that health information exchange and clinical interoperability are critical to improving patient outcomes and coordinating care. The next stage of meaningful use measures will require more comprehensive health information exchange, he has said.
“AAFP Physicians Direct will make slow, fragmented and cumbersome patient referrals and follow-up care a thing of the past,” said Dr. Steven Waldren, director of the AAFP Center for Health IT.
Subscribers to AAFP Physicians Direct will be able to securely exchange messages with any other provider on the Surescripts network. Message recipients will retrieve messages from a secure web page within the Physicians Direct portal and reply to messages for free.
It will support federal and state policies and standards for health information exchange, including privacy and security standards as well as standards and technology for exchange, such as Continuity of Care Record (CCR) developed by ASTM International and the Continuity of Care Document (CCD) standard from Health Level 7 to communicate patient summaries.
Source : http://www.govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?tid=77&nid=76331
Tags: Certified Prescription, E-Prescribing, E-Prescription, Electronic Prescription, eRx, SureScripts
Posted February 21, 2011 by admin under E-Prescription, EHR, EMR, Electronic Prescription
