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GE Healthcare Announces Participation by Centricity Health Information Ex change Services at 2008 Cennectathon
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Feb 27, 2008 - 2:38:38 PM

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - ORLANDO, FLA, – GE Healthcare IT announced today that many of its Centricity® solutions, including Centricity Health Information Exchange (HIE) Services, passed important integration profiles established by Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE). The IHE testing process is a critical step in achieving systems interoperability to enhance the quality of patient care. Many of these profiles were also recently recognized by the US Department of Health and Human Services, and will be required for use in Federal programs, and by contractors under those programs.

GE Healthcare entered 14 systems at the IHE 2008 North American Connectathon, held Jan 28 - Feb 1,2008 in Chicago, IL. More than 37 different IHE profiles were cross-tested, in six key areas (domains), with 70 other HIT vendors. Of particular note, GE Healthcare completed and passed testing of profiles relevant to its Centricity HIE Services solution, which implements Cross-Domain Document Sharing (XDS) profiles as key components of its architecture. Testing domains included IT infrastructure, patient care coordination, laboratory, radiology, cardiology, and patient care devices. According to IHE, Integration Profiles provide a more precise definition of how standards are implemented, and define a specific implementation of standards that are designed to meet identified clinical needs. A list of the specific profiles successfully cross-tested by GE appears below.

“We are pleased at the results of this testing event. We have experienced strong demand from our customers, including electronic medical records (EMR) customers, for a solution that allows them to share clinical information with other clinicians, whether or not they are using GE Centricity products,” said Blair Butterfield, General Manager of Government Initiatives, GE Healthcare. “Passing these additional IHE profiles further demonstrates our commitment to standards-based interoperability using a secure and flexible architecture, that protects patient privacy and consent, and enables clinical data to be stored and shared in accordance with business needs – key issues that have long hampered health information exchange.”

IHE is sponsored by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and is a global initiative that creates the framework for passing vital health information seamlessly – from application to application, system to system, and setting to setting – across multiple healthcare enterprises. Active participation in IHE and the ongoing development of systems that meet IHE profiles are key elements of GE Healthcare’s continued commitment to standards-based health information exchange.

“The standard for interoperability we meet today will ultimately lead to closer connections among doctors, hospitals, and patients. It is the beginning of the true digital healthcare age,” Butterfield said.

GE Healthcare also announced that the company’s Centricity® Health Information Exchange Services is supporting a new chronic disease management program launched by Vermont Information Technology Leaders (VITL) in late December, making the Vermont Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) one of the first to implement a HITSP-compliant disease management program.

“GE Healthcare is a strong, trusted partner with the experience, knowledge, and focus to help make our vision of community health a reality,” said Greg Farnum, President of VITL. “The VITL HIE architecture is perfectly aligned with HITSP and IHE, and we expect this to accelerate our adoption and reduce start up and long-term costs.”

The announcements were made at the 2008 Annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference & Exhibition being held this week at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center.

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