David Whitlinger, Executive Director, of the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) spoke at the Health Data Initiative Forum held June 5th and 6th in Washington D.C. HHS along with the Institute of Medicine and other members of the Health Data Consortium co-hosted the third annual “Datapalooza” focusing on innovative applications and services that harness the power of open data
Whitlinger discussed how the New York Digital Health “Accelerator” program is pairing entrepreneurs & healthcare providers with appropriate access to clinical data. The “Accelerator” program run by the NYeC and the New York Investment Fund is going to help early and growth stage digital health companies. The program is seeking providers that are actively looking for new technology products that will help them effectively implement the new Health Home Initiative.
There are more than 5 million Medicaid members in NY State and of that population at least 975,000 meet the federal criteria for participation in Health Homes. The Home Health Initiative is part of New York’s Medicaid redesign initiative with the goal to enroll almost all of the entire Medicaid population in some type of care management program.
The Health Home builds linkages to other community and social supports to provide for coordination of medical and behavioral healthcare with the greatest concentration on individuals with multiple chronic illnesses.
The “Accelerator” program will provide:
- Direct mentorship and feedback from senior level executives from a broad network of provider organizations in the State to help 12 tech companies accepted into the 9 month program
- Up to $300,000 of funding per company from a syndicate of leading venture capital and strategic investors
- Selected companies with priority access to the technology platform that is connecting EHRs across the Statewide Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY)
- A leadership program with the opportunity to interact with a network of healthcare leaders, successful entrepreneurs, and investors
Applications for the “Accelerator” program are due June 11, 2012. At a minimum, the companies selected will need to have a beta version of their technology. For more details, go to http://www.digitalhealthaccelerator.com/ or email info@digitalhealthaccelerator.com.
Also, on June 6th, the NYeC and the New York State Department of Health announced that three RHIOs and three HIE vendors will participate in the Statewide Health Information Network of New York or referred to as (SHIN-NY).
The RHIOs including the Brooklyn Health Information Exchange, e-Health Network of Long Island, and THINC have joined SHIN-NY and are connecting their databases and infrastructure. Also, HIE vendors including HealthUnity, IBM, and InterSystems have formally joined forces with NYeC to provide a HIE across New York’s downstate region.
The initial capability of the SHIN-NY will be the “Patient Record Look Up”, a function similar to a highly secure search engine which enables providers to search across databases with the network. The next function to be deployed will be Direct Exchange where providers will be able to query each other while collaborating on patient care.
SHIN-NY’s new innovation the “Application Programming Interface” (API) will allow developers to build new healthcare technology applications. Through API, innovators and health IT companies will be able to access the clinical information needed to develop products that meet providers’ needs. This platform will also help innovators standardize their applications and software.
Go to http://nyehealth.org/index.php/programs/about-shin-ny for more information on SHIN-NY.
