Emerging Health Information Technology and dbMotion Selected As Technology Partners for Bronx RHIO

Emerging Health Information Technology, a healthcare IT consulting and professional services company, has contracted with the Bronx Regional Health Information Organization (Bronx RHIO) to design, implement and support an electronic health information exchange that will allow participating Bronx healthcare providers to access comprehensive patient information at the point of care. As the core technology solution for the Bronx RHIO, Emerging Health has selected dbMotion, a provider of healthcare information integration software, in order to create an integrated solution that is flexible, scalable and ensures the secure exchange of information between the Bronx RHIO's participating organizations.

"We're thrilled to be working with the Bronx RHIO, its members and dbMotion to bring a new level of quality, safety and continuity of patient care to the Bronx community," said Jack Wolf, president and chief executive officer of Emerging Health. "Giving healthcare providers access to critical patient information when and where they need it will help reduce medication errors, eliminate duplicate testing, improve the management of chronic diseases, and deliver better public health preparedness and response across the borough. We are confident that we will build a world-class solution for the Bronx RHIO."

The dbMotion Solution is a technology platform that gives participating healthcare organizations secure access to select components of patient medical files maintained at facilities that are otherwise unconnected or have no common technology through which to share data. This is accomplished by creating a secure "Virtual Patient Record" that integrates relevant information to create a comprehensive record of the patient's medical history, while allowing all source information to remain intact in the original system, location and format. Data can be shared within and across organizations even if standardization of language and protocols (i.e., interoperability) has not been achieved. For the past five years, the dbMotion Solution has been utilized by an Israel-based RHIO that consists of 16 hospitals (8100 beds), 1300 primary and specialized clinics, 11,000 clinicians, 18,000 healthcare workers and 400 pharmacies serving close to 5 million patients.

"Being selected as a technology partner for a project that will have such a far-reaching and positive impact on healthcare in the Bronx and beyond is an honor," said Peter van der Grinten, general manager, US & Canada for dbMotion, Inc. "We look forward to working with Emerging Health to create an information-sharing platform that will become the gold-standard for other RHIOs and healthcare delivery systems."

The Bronx RHIO was recently established through a $4.1-million New York State grant and its members include institutions with some of the nation's most highly advanced electronic clinical information systems. The organization already encompasses 80 percent of the Bronx's healthcare providers, 50 percent of the borough's practicing physicians and two-thirds of all Bronx patient inpatient care.

"We are committed to improving the overall quality and efficiency of care for the 1.4 million people in the Bronx, and believe that giving healthcare providers access to each patient's entire medical history - whenever and wherever they need it -- is critical," said Barbara Radin, the Bronx RHIO's executive director. "The use of proven technology that facilitates the exchange of critical patient information while also ensuring the security of this data will enable us to achieve this goal."