The CommonWell Health Alliance continues to add new members as it works toward an ambitious goal of expanding its provider footprint to 5,000 sites nationwide by the end of 2015.

Two of the newest CommonWell are vendors: Caremerge develops a cloud-based care coordination platform that enables real-time clinical staff interaction and collaboration, and engagement for patients and their families; T-System's technology focuses on episodic care, specializing in IT for emergency department documentation in hospitals, freestanding emergency centers and urgent care centers.

[See also: CommonWell Health Alliance plans nationwide expansion]

The other two new sign-ons are state health information exchanges.

[See also: MEDITECH joins CommonWell, among others]

Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services, or MiHIN is the official state-designated entity in the Great Lake State and offers integration with the national eHealth Exchange operated by HealtheWay.

Texas Health Services Authority, meanwhile, is a public private partnership meant to enable local coordination of HIEs across the Lone Star State. By providing a set of shared services, known as HIETexas, THSA enables secure connectivity between authorized HIE networks and state agencies in Texas and between Texas and other networks across the country.

"These leading edge HIE organizations recognize that interoperability is an all-hands-on-deck project for our country's healthcare delivery system, and are committed to finding ways to extend our CommonWell mission," wrote CommonWell's Membership Committee Chair Nick Knowlton. "Likewise, CommonWell is committed to improving health care interoperability across the nation and looks forward to discovering new ways to work together with respected and successful interoperability organizations, such as MiHIN and THSA."