WHIE Kickoff

Partners working together to create a statewide initiative for an electronic health information exhange network came together to launch the process on Monday, February 28, 2011.

Powerpoint Presentation:

Partnership flowchart:
WHIE: The BIg Picture

Press coverage:
The Wichita Eagle
The Wichita Business Journal

Project Goals

Wichita Health Information Exchange (WHIE) is working toward:

• Creating a collaborative electronic exchange of health data across the local medical trade region.
• Implementing a system that mirrors where paper currently travels.
• Ensuring that privacy and security of patient information is paramount.

Everyone will benefit from WHIE:

• Patients: through better coordination of their medical care.
• Physician & Hospitals: with improved delivery of care, enhanced communication and increased efficiencies.
• Employers: with enhanced value from their health care expenditures.
• Community: with access to data that supports local health improvement efforts.

Technology

The WHIE Board will seek to implement a system in the local medical trade region that uses push-pull technology to exchange information between providers in real time at the point of care.

• The technology will use the Internet to route patient clinical information between physician offices, hospitals, labs, radiology sites, etc.
• WHIE will ensure that community-wide access to medical information will only occur through a secure gatekeeper process to providers who have authenticated access.

Implementation

Since fall 2009, WHIE Board members have worked closely with the Kansas e-Health Advisory Committee to establish a state-wide electronic health information exchange. Wichita hopes to serve as the launch site for Phase 1 of the Kansas HIE.

• The initial phase of the WHIE will include primary and specialty care physicians, lab, imaging and pharmaceutical services and the two major hospital systems — the full continuum of health care within the local medical trade region.
• Data use agreements with these partners will articulate privacy and security standards.
• Funding for the initial phase of WHIE is under development.

WHIE Board of Directors

• Ron C. Brown, MD, president
  Wichita Family Medicine Specialists
• Joe Davison, MD, vice president
  West Wichita Family Physicians
• Matthew Leary, treasurer
  Wesley Medical Center
• Jon Rosell, PhD, secretary
  Medical Society of Sedgwick County
• Claudia Blackburn, MPH, RNC, CPM
  Sedgwick County Health Department
• Brent Lancaster, MD
  Wichita Surgical Specialists
• Steen Mortensen, MD
  Wichita Clinic
• David R. Hadley, CPA
  Via Christi Health System