13 Jul 2005  Report to Boulder County Medical Society

COEKG Update

 

Project Summary:  COEKG is a Boulder County Medical Society Initiative to build a Model for Linking Clinical Data between hospitals with dissimilar networks using the EKG as a working prototype.

 

Vision:  Blaze the course in an evolving vision to forge protocols and standards through a secure Internet based EKG exchange strategy.

 

Today’s Activities (13 Jul):

 

• Dr John Sotos, MD, PhD, Cardiologist and former Healtheon Chief Medical Director has agreed to be COEKG’s chief cardiologist.
• COEKG awarded prestigious “HONcode” Health On the Net certification from Geneva after 3 weeks of adjustments and review.
• IBM has agreed to support the project with money and equipment (exact amount to be determined).

 

Cumulative Report:

 

Boulder County Clinics and Hospitals Involved to Date:

 

• LUH
• Exempla Good Samaritan (and Kaiser Network)
• Avista and Centura Network (Porter, St Anthony’s, etc)
• Clinica Campesina and iPN network

 

External Partners recruited to date:

 

• Kaiser
• IBM
• Seagate
• OpenECG Network
• HealthOnNet
• University of Colorado
• Clinica Campesina
• LUH Foundation
• COHIE (Colorado Health Information Exchange)

 

Future Partners/Sponsors/Endorsers (Solicitation in Progress): 

 

• TraceMaster (Philips)
• MedicAlert
• Salud
• People’s Clinic
• Markle Foundation
• Department of Defense
• Microsoft
• Former Governor Richard Lamm
• Current CMS President Richard May

 

Expected Beneficiaries:

 

All Boulder County Patients, especially underinsured who have inconsistent access to Primary Care Providers and little hope of becoming early participants in the  pending Electronic Health Record Revolution unless networking protocols evolve under the supervision and neutral guidance of a charitable, non-profit, overarching organization (ie County/State Medical Society)

 

Draft of Proposed Resolution from BCMS:

 

Whereas: Electronic Health Records have demonstrated their unquestioned contribution to improved patient care, error reduction, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness;

Whereas: Free market producers of commercial Information Technology have little independent incentive to abandon proprietary formats and create open source solutions because that would entail risk of losing market-share;

Whereas: A decade after secure e-commerce strategies have been available the Health Care Community has been the slowest sector to adopt and enjoy efficiency benefits of this technology;

Resolved: (Less Talk—More Action): Colorado will build the nation’s first statewide secure and accessible network to share critical clinical data between all Emergency Departments and qualifying clinics by the end of 2006. 

 

Phase I has begun and involves a single, but critical element of the EHR – The EKG.