Mastering Data Management

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Chad Cosper reviews the strengths of New Mexico's HIE plan

In February 2010, the New Mexico Health Information Collaborative (NMHIC) became the first State Designated Entity (SDE) to have its operational plan approved for statewide HIE by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC).

While a handful of states have also succeeded in having their plans approved by the ONC, NMHIC’s strategic and operational plan remains a model from which other states can gain insight into their own plan creation.

One of the secrets to NMHIC's success is adherence to some of the common principles, or 'guard rails' identified by the eHealth Initiative as critical success ingredients for long-term strategy. The eHealth Initiative Toolkit identifies six starting points for organizations developing long term strategies for health information exchange.

I examined two that New Mexico leveraged in their operational plan that stand out the most.

Create Achievable, Actionable and Practical Initiatives

NMHIC's operational plan includes detailed strategies for connecting providers and other federal and state entities to the statewide HIE, many of which are well underway.

As a foundational element to this exercise, NMHIC evaluated current HIE capabilities and quickly recognized that in order to support a federated data governance model and maintain a high level of data quality, they must extend their existing Master Patient Index (MPI) to serve participants across the state. They predict this move will double the number of unique identities being managed by the system.

According to the operational plan, NMHIC considers an MPI to be "the most important resource in an HIE, because it is the link for positively tracking patient, person or member activity within an organization, across organizations and across patient care settings.

Provide Technical Basis for Health Data Exchange

A key to success for any HIE is for multiple participants to share data without having to give up ownership.

According to New Mexico’s operational plan, from 2004 - 2006, NMHIC "designed a federated network architecture that leaves patient information on the originating organization‘s computers, thereby avoiding a central data warehouse or repository."

The statewide HIE will continue to employ a "federated architecture of independent (decentralized) databases that are connected to share and exchange information. The federated architecture will provide a means to share data and transactions using messaging services, combine information from several components, and coordinate activities among autonomous components."

I encourage you to access New Mexico's operational plan and continue the comparison against the eHealth common principals for HIE.

Hear More at the eHealth Initiative's National Forum on HIE

I’m looking forward to July 22^nd where HIT leaders from all over the country, including New Mexico,  will convene in our nation’s capital for eHealth Initiative's National Forum on HIE. Speakers from dozens of HIEs will discuss the challenges and keys to success in creating a statewide HIE. This interactive forum will enable HIT leaders and technology work groups to learn from their counterparts across the nation.

You can learn more about how a highly accurate and scalable MPI can help form the foundation of your technical approach to HIE by stopping by the Initiate booth #110. Learn how a federated architecture can help eliminate some of the governance and collaboration issues that derail many HIEs.