The physician portal that the Michigan State Medical Society launched in 2009 to give its members flexibility and an alternative marketplace for electronic health records has the potential to be a component of the statewide health information exchange.

While the seven "trading areas" or healthcare markets in Michigan were concerned that MSMS' activities would "mute their progress" in building regional HIEs, Ben Louagie, senior director of operations for MSMS, said, "We don't consider what we have a health information exchange. We're a platform that can be a complement to the HIEs of Michigan."

The physician portal doesn't hold any data. A collaboration with the American Medical Association (AMA) in 2010 brought new functionalities to the platform, which is powered by Covisint's technology. To date, approximately 2,500 physicians and 4,500 office staff members have a choice of accessing three EHRs, three e-prescribing tools and two patient registries, according to Virginia Gibson, director of MSMS' subsidiary services. The collaboration also added AMA-branded functionalities, including knowledge- and research-based tools for clinical decision support.

While the physician portal isn't connected to any of the regional HIEs today, Louagie said he hopes someday the HIEs can be linked to what MSMS offers through its portal. "The HIEs will need a way to communicate with one another. The state offers some programs for connectivity, but we would like to be able to help with communications between physicians in the different trading areas. Our portal can play a part in that offering. We have the opportunity to connect HIEs as a super HIE," he said.

The medical society is currently developing different tools that allow physicians to communicate with one another in HIPAA-compliant ways. It's just one way MSMS can help facilitate the adoption of HIT and facilitate the development of HIEs as part of a larger solution, Louagie said. "Our desire as a physician association is not to corner the market but to support our physicians and their work to keep Michiganians healthy," he said.

MSMS is well connected throughout the state. It provides administrative support to the Michigan Health Information Network (MiHIN), the coalition of public and private stakeholders designated to build the statewide HIE infrastructure, and has physician representation with the Michigan Health IT Commission, which is also involved in the build out.

The medical society has benefited from its close relationship with Detroit-based Covisint. The communication and collaboration platform provider helped MSMS with its strategy of offering alternative EMRs and pushing that functionality forward, which has also helped drive the adoption of healthcare IT in the state, Louagie said.

MSMS is looking to add more national and especially local lab connections, expand efforts toward physician-to-physician communication and deliver more useful tools for physicians through its portal, he said. While the medical society is also pushing for greater adoption, it is not the end goal. "We want to give alternatives and resources, and educate physicians," Louagie said. "It's one of the cornerstones of our association."