NOVA RHIO PLENARY SESSION

Meeting Notes                                                                                               May 11, 2007

Welcome                                                                                              Dr. William Hazel

Aetna’s Implementation of Personal Health Records                              Dr. William Fried

            and Patient Safety Outreach

Aetna is responding to employer concerns about costs, trying reach out to patients, and advising physicians about best practice standards.

Aetna’s Med Query program compares data from patients’ claims, showing what treatments they have received, against current recommendations gleaned from the medical literature. Where there is a discrepancy, Aetna will notify the physician, who may then explain why a particular procedure was not followed or acknowledge that he should follow it.  The medical literature database is updated every two weeks. The program ranks discrepancies in three levels, according to severity. 

For example, if a person with diabetes is not on statins, the physician will be notified that the current recommendation is to treat with statins.  Aetna notifies the physician first, giving him two weeks to respond, and then gives the information to the patient with a recommendation to speak to the physician.

Aetna maintains a patient-populated Personal Health Record to which it adds information from claims data.  When Aetna sees a potential problem, it alerts the patient and physician.

Aetna is working to making its program portable and interoperable. Its information is seen as credible because it is based on claims data.

The program appeals to employers because it helps cut costs.

Virginia’s Health Immunization Policy                                                    Jane Woods

Jane Woods substituted for Archer Redmond, PhD, the manager of the Virginia Health Information Registry.  Ms. Woods said that the Virginia Department of Health aims to identify over-immunized as well as under-immunized children. Pilot programs, started in June, 2006, are due to finish in June, 2007.  The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) website has information about the Virginia Immunization Information Systems (VIIS) program.  

https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/Epidemiology/Immunization/registry.htm

Charter RHIO Board Members                                                            Dr. William Hazel

Dr. Hazel, Chair           Alan Goldberg, Secretary

Other members are listed separately on the RHIO website.

Committee Reports

Outreach                                                                                              Ian Kremer

The committee is working on marketing at the macro level, to the business community in general, and at the micro level, to individual employers.  All of the values expressed should be complementary and mutually supportive.  Individuals stress different aspects of features such as privacy and affordability, but solutions must be sought that will overcome the barriers and permit interoperability.

Designs for RHIO cards and a press kit are being developed.

Mr. Kremer asks for questions that could be worked into a FAQ webpage.

Infrastructure                                                                                        Helayne Sweet

The informational meeting organized by NOVA RHIO and the Reston Citizens’ Association that took place at the Reston Hospital Center on May 5, 2007, was covered by the Reston Times and The Connection.

The infrastructure will follow a model suitable for hospital data.  The infrastructure must be affordable.  It will focus on medications, radiology, and labs first.  The model has to work across hospital systems.

Patient Safety                                                                                       Dr. Leslie Ellwood

The committee invited physicians to attend a focus group and asked them to fill in a survey to find out which of them and how many had internet service in their offices.

The next meeting is scheduled for June or July

Legal Documents                                                                                  Alan Goldberg

The legal underpinning of the RHIO should be facilitative and designed for success. The priorities are protection and organizational structure.  The organization will be a Virginia Corporation without members set up for charitable purposes.  Significant progress has been made toward these ends.

Other Remarks

Current Concerns in Mental Health                                                       Cathy Pumfrey

The county is focusing on making appropriate assistive technology available for consumers and developing a recovery worksite for consumers.

Bearing Point’s SharePoint System                                                        J.P. Auffret

There will be a liaison with Bearing Point to assist with project management.

NEXT RHIO PLENARY SESSION:  Friday, July 20, 2007