California data exchange project to expand to help

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<p>California data exchange project to expand to help more chronically ill patients<br />Healthcare IT News <br />By  Fred Bazzoli, Senior Editor  07/21/06 </p><p>OAKLAND, CA – The California Clinical Data Project is taking steps to parlay its initial success in improving the collection and integration of clinical data among stakeholders for wider use throughout the state. </p><p>The program, initiated in 2004 by the California HealthCare Foundation, some six large health plans, two major clinical laboratories and numerous provider organizations in the state use the CCDP-defined standards to exchange information on more than 6 million patients. </p><p>Future use of the standards will have implications beyond assisting pay-for-performance programs in the state, according to Sophia Chang, MD, director of chronic disease care at the CHCF, and Walter Sujansky, MD, head of Sujansky and Associates, a consulting firm specializing in clinical information system design. </p><p>The standards are intended to increase the use of information technology to improve the quality of chronic disease care in California by facilitating the exchange of pharmacy claim and lab results data. While standards for such data exchanges already existed, the CCDP sought to update them to maximize their adoption. </p><p>Chang and Sujansky, writing in the summer issue of the Journal of Healthcare Information Management, say program proponents hope to expand use of the standards to patient populations beyond commercially insured HMO patients. </p><p>These populations could include those covered by state Medicaid plans and commercial preferred provider organizations, Chang and Sujansky say. </p><p>The program also aims to accelerate the frequency with which pharmacy claims and laboratory result data are transmitted to disease registries and other disease management systems. Over time, organizers hope to move from current monthly data feeds to weekly, daily or near real-time feeds. </p><p>Finally, organizers hope to expand use of electronic clinical data access at the point of care so that real-time clinical decision support is more widely available to improve chronic disease care. </p><p>To achieve that, program developers will need to provide interfaces to link disease registries with EHR systems to permit the use of population-based disease management features. </p><p></p>