2 More Secure Data Exchange Demos Funded

Cincinnati, Detroit Get Beacon Community Pilots
2 More Secure Data Exchange Demos Funded
Projects in Cincinnati and Detroit are the final additions to the list of those that will receive a total of $250 million in federal grants for the secure sharing of healthcare information among organizations. The 17 Beacon Community pilot projects are designed to achieve quality improvement goals.

The HITECH Act is funding the Beacon Community program, which will include strong privacy and security measures. The pilot projects, 15 of which were announced in May, are designed to demonstrate how electronic health records and secure health information exchanges can improve health care quality, safety and efficiency, says Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services.

"The program will also allow HHS to look for new ways to share the lessons learned by funded communities, and, working with local and national healthcare foundations, develop support networks for other communities that want to employ similar innovative approaches," according to an HHS statement.

The Greater Cincinnati HealthBridge will receive $13.8 million over three years for a project involving quality improvement and care coordination for patients with pediatric asthma and adult diabetes and for encouraging smoking cessation.

The Southeastern Michigan Health Association will receive $16.2 million over three years to improve the availability of patient information at the point of care so clinicians can catch potential health complications, especially for diabetics. The project will enable clinicians to better track clinical outcomes to improve diabetes care.


About the Author

Howard Anderson

Howard Anderson

Former News Editor, ISMG

Anderson was news editor of Information Security Media Group and founding editor of HealthcareInfoSecurity and DataBreachToday. He has more than 40 years of journalism experience, with a focus on healthcare information technology issues. Before launching HealthcareInfoSecurity, he served as founding editor of Health Data Management magazine, where he worked for 17 years, and he served in leadership roles at several other healthcare magazines and newspapers.




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