Albany Medical Center, one of the busiest trauma centers in Upstate New York, will be the state’s first provider using the Direct service, which integrates into providers’ electronic health record systems. Vendor certification for Direct messaging will begin this spring through the Interoperability Workgroup led by the New York eHealth Collaborative, which oversees SHIN-NY.

 

“The consultation process is an example of the need for this selective information exchange,” Fred Venditti, MD, vice dean for clinical affairs at Albany Medical Center, said in a media release. “A primary care provider can send to a consultant the relevant clinical data to initiate a referral. The consultant can send the completed consultation note with the important clinical data created as part of the evaluation directly back to the PCP.”

 

[See also: States launch Direct across borders of Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska.]

 

The Direct service, Venditti said, “provides a next generation clinician-centric way to electronically exchange patient information by and ‘directly’ between clinicians’ EHRs.”

 

For Albany Medical Center, the Direct service is being powered by the Healthcare Information Xchange of New York (HIXNY), which serves as greater Albany and northern New York’s regional HIE.

 

National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, MD, said in a media release that the SHIN-NY Direct service is “a critical component for eligible providers to achieve Stage 2 meaningful use in New York while enabling a simple point-to-point exchange of patient health data.”

 

The Healthcare Information Xchange was one of the state’s first HIEs, said Rachel Block, deputy commissioner for health information technology transformation at the New York State Department of Health, “and Albany Medical Center being the first major provider to enable Direct messaging, this represents a significant step in reaching our state’s goal of full connectivity and brings us closer to further enabling and improving quality, coordinated care.”