New Jersey Health Commissioner Mary E. O'Dowd today announced an award of $1.57 million to a coalition of health organizations to create and operate a statewide network that will enable the sharing of patient health information electronically. The New Jersey Health Information Network (NJHIN) will connect regional health information organizations that are currently exchanging data among local healthcare providers. Commissioner O'Dowd made this announcement at the New Jersey Technology Council's Health Information Technology Summit in Princeton.
"The creation of the New Jersey Health Information Network will further expand the use of health information technology and health information exchange to better coordinate patient care in our state," said Commissioner O'Dowd. "NJHIN will allow appropriate healthcare providers across the state to have electronic access to patient information such as medical histories, medication allergies and lab test results at the point of care."
Healthcare providers will connect to the network through their regional health information organization, which is a group of physician offices, hospitals and healthcare stakeholders such as laboratories that come together to electronically exchange patient health information among their members to improve health and delivery of care in a community.
NJHIN is expected to become operational in early 2014. The network will initially connect approximately 2,000 providers, which will increase over time.
The NJHIN coalition that received this grant award includes the following members:
· Jersey Health Connect, the coalition lead and a health information organization that connects northern and central New Jersey healthcare providers;
· Health-e-cITi-NJ, a health information organization that connects greater Newark area providers;
· Camden HIE, a health information organization that connects Camden area providers;
· NJSHINE, a health information organization that connects southern New Jersey healthcare providers;
· Virtua, an integrated delivery network based in southern New Jersey; and
· NJ-HITEC, New Jersey's regional extension center dedicated to helping office-based physicians adopt and demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health record technology
The NJHIN coalition was chosen through a competitive Request for Applications process because of their commitment to the success of health information exchange efforts in the state, technical capability to deliver the requested technology services, and demonstrated experience working with diverse stakeholder groups to achieve common objectives. Funding to create NJHIN is provided through a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT grant.
