The District of Columbia is shifting away from a formal health information exchange to a less-robust email system for sharing medical data among providers, citing problems with financing and physician compliance as reasons for the shift.
Bids are due Jan. 13 for contractors seeking to build an email platform for D.C. physicians and hospitals to exchange information by the end of June, the Washington Business Journal reported Tuesday. The district can renew the one-year contract for three more years, the newspaper said.
The email system should be able to eventually plug into a nationwide health information exchange, the paper reported.
The D.C. Primary Care Association shut down its D.C. Regional Health Information Organization in October, citing lack of funding, according to the paper. Federal health IT grants that would have gone to the regional health exchange now will go to the email network, to be called Direct Project.
John Pulley
John Pulley has written the Health IT Update blog since May 2011. Prior to becoming a regular contributor to Nextgov, he covered technology for Federal Computer Week and Government Health IT magazines. He has written about government for Federal Times and Air Force Times, as well. Pulley has worked in journalism for more than 20 years. He began his career covering local government for regional newspapers. In addition, he served as a writer and senior editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education for seven years. In 2006, he founded The Pulley Group, an editorial services agency.
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