Colorado Selects Medicity To Roll Out Statewide Electronic Health Network

DENVER, May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- CORHIO, the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization, announced today that it will use a technology platform developed by Salt Lake City-based Medicity to build the state's health information exchange.

"The selection of Medicity is a first step towards building a statewide information network, which is vital to improving today's health care system," said Joan Henneberry, the executive director of Colorado's Department of Health Care Policy and Financing and CORHIO Board Chair.

"Medicity was chosen due to its flexible technology platform, its ability to adapt to federal legislation affecting health information technology and its clear commitment to ensuring the success of health information exchanges in Colorado and other states," CORHIO executive director Phyllis Albritton said.

Increasingly, physicians and hospitals are storing patient information in electronic medical records. Electronic medical records will realize their full value when health care providers can easily access and share that information in real-time. Ultimately, a statewide health information exchange (HIE) will let health care providers securely share clinical information and provide better, more efficient patient care. CORHIO is facilitating this electronic communication of clinical health information by building out the state's HIE network.

"Most people we talk to in communities think their health information is already shared electronically and securely between their health care providers," said Albritton. "In most cases, that's not true. For example, it can take up to five days to send lab results to a doctor's office because of the paper-based processes currently used in health care. Plus, whether the information is transmitted by fax, mail or courier, the information is more vulnerable to being lost or misused than when sent through a highly secure electronic health information exchange.