Cloud-based EHR company athenahealth, and CECity, a provider of cloud-based registry services for performance improvement and value-based reporting, have teamed up to launch what it calls a "first-of-its-kind" health data exchange integration and reporting service.

The service automates the flow of information directly from practices using athenaClinicals to clinical registries from national medical specialty societies and other registries.

The American College of Physicians will be the first national medical organization to receive clinical data from athenaClinicals to its registry via CECity's clinical quality data gateway. The gateway trademarked ImpaQT Gateway.

"In partnership with CECity, and through a combination of our open cloud-based platform and commitment to free data flow in healthcare, we continue to expand our providers' ability to effortlessly transmit key clinical data from their EHR to the places it needs to and should go," said Doran Robinson, vice president of healthcare transactions, athenahealth, in a news release.

"We believe data exchange should be a core service embedded in health information technology to satisfy things like meaningful use, but more importantly to advance the delivery of high-quality, well-coordinated care," Robinson added. "This partnership is an important differentiator for athenahealth; with CECity, we are establishing a key platform integration point that enables any provider using our athenaClinicals service to meet meaningful use specialized registry requirements with no additional effort and at no additional cost, so they can focus on their primary role of efficient, high-quality patient care delivery."

The ImpaQt Gateway will enable the seamless transfer of information from the national athenaNet platform to appropriate "specialized registries" in order to satisfy the meaningful use Stage 2 – menu measure 6 requirement that went into effect Jan. 1.

Gateway includes support for standardized data exchange formats from EHRs, as prescribed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Through secure, continuous data exchange, the ImpaQt Gateway accepts standardized EHR files, which are then automatically processed and logically stored in CECity's registry-based cloud platform.

Practices are then able to control how they would like their EHR data to be channeled for use in a variety of applications hosted by CECity, including the specialized registries available for meaningful use, as well as PQRS, Bridges to Excellence, Maintenance of Certification, and other clinical practice improvement programs.

ACP first to receive data to its registry
The first specialized registry to receive data through the ImpaQt Gateway will be ACP Genesis Registry. Through a partnership with CECity, ACP Genesis Registry will accept data from athenaClinicals and provide participating health care practices with continuous feedback reports presented through online performance monitors.