The Arkansas Office of Health Information Technology (OHIT) announced on Thursday that the state will use OptumInsight's health information exchange technology to build the infrastructure for the State Health Alliance for Records Exchange (SHARE), Arkansas' statewide HIE.

Ray Scott, state coordinator for health information technology said the selection of OptumInsight and its Axolotl HIE solution represents a major milestone in Arkansas's efforts to expand the use of electronic health information that will benefit patients, care providers and payers.

[See also: Axolotl HIE is now OptumInsight.]

“OptumInsight's extensive experience in enabling the exchange of medical information about patients, who are treated by multiple unaffiliated health care providers, means better coordinated care and ultimately better health for Arkansans," Scott said.

OHIT is the state-designated entity responsible for establishing the State Health Alliance for Records Exchange and for coordinating health information technology throughout the state, according to state officials. Through the use of federal and state funding, OHIT and SHARE's mission is to improve the quality of health for Arkansans by making the delivery of health care services more efficient and affordable, while improving patient safety.

The state received $7.9 million in funding as part of the State Health Information Cooperative Agreement Program made available through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

Using OptumInsight's Axolotl HIE solution, SHARE will create a secure infrastructure to connect disparate health information systems to facilitate the exchange of information with existing community and private HIEs as well as ambulatory electronic health record systems (EHR's) across the state, Scott said.

Participating physicians, authorized health services professionals, and hospital facilities will have the ability to exchange patients' clinical information securely and access up-to-date and historical medical information at the point of care. This information may include the patient's relevant clinical care summaries of diagnoses, treatments, lab test results, allergies, radiology images and medications from all care providers connected to SHARE.

[See also: HIE lessons of two states.] 

SHARE will be implemented in phases, according to Arkansas state officials. Phase 1 will provide secure messaging, which will facilitate and expand the secure, electronic movement and use of health information between unaffiliated health care providers. In Phase II, SHARE will evolve into a more robust health information exchange, giving all participating healthcare providers the ability to share patient information among hospitals, physicians and public health entities connected to the exchange.

Through collaboration with the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care and its division, HITArkansas, which serves as the Arkansas Regional Extension Center (REC), OHIT will provide strategies for assisting healthcare providers to quickly reach stage 1 meaningful use, as well as developing the infrastructure needed by labs, e-lab orders and structured lab results.

"The selection of OptumInsight to build the infrastructure for Arkansas's health information exchange is a tremendous step in improving health care through health information technology," said Ray Hanley, president and CEO of the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, the parent company of HITArkansas, the state's Regional Extension Center. "OHIT has been a great partner in our efforts to aid health care providers in the transition to electronic health records, and we look forward to the next steps in that process."

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