Electronic Health Reporter

CommonWell Health Alliance announces the addition of five new members enhancing the association’s nationwide footprint, share of the EHR marketplace and diversity across the care continuum. MEDITECH, Merge and Kareo join as contributing members while PointClickCare and Surgical Information Systems (SIS) join as general members.

With the addition of these new members, CommonWell membership now represents 70 percent of the acute care EHR market and 20 percent of the ambulatory care EHR market. CommonWell membership also represents market leaders in imaging, perinatal, laboratory, retail pharmacy, oncology, population health, post-acute care and others across the care continuum.

“We know it takes collective experience and dedication to break down barriers to nationwide data exchange, so we are especially pleased to welcome these industry innovators to the CommonWell family,” said Nick Knowlton, Vice President of Business Development at Brightree and CommonWell Membership Committee Chair. “Each organization will contribute to our effort by providing a commitment to action and new perspectives for additional use cases that will help us accelerate our current deployment of real-world interoperability services.”

• MEDITECH is one of CommonWell’s largest members to join since inception. It provides fully integrated technology solutions for hospitals, ambulatory care centers, physicians’ offices, long term care and behavioral health facilities, and home care organizations. MEDITECH’s membership increases CommonWell’s share of the acute care market from 50% to 70%.

• Merge is a leading provider of enterprise imaging, interoperability and clinical systems that seek to advance health care. It offers solutions in radiology, eye care, cardiology, orthopedics and clinical trials—all of which provide the opportunity for CommonWell to develop new use cases across a broader spectrum of the health care continuum. Additionally, Merge has the most complete radiology solution on the market, from small-volume sites up to the largest practices and chains in the country.

“Merge embraces the opportunity to join CommonWell at a critical moment in health care,” said Steve Tolle, Chief Strategy Officer at Merge Healthcare. “Industry leaders must actively come together to make interoperability real, and the Alliance provides an effective platform for meaningful dialogue and collaboration to help chart the future trajectory of the health care industry.”

• Kareo brings more than 30,000 providers and 60,000 users of its cloud-based medical office software suite into CommonWell. As CommonWell continues to deploy services nationwide, Kareo’s ambulatory experience and reach will accelerate universal provider access to critical health care data.

“Kareo believes the powerful combination of the more than 60 percent of U.S. doctors that practice independently with truly interoperable health care technology will drive breakthrough improvements in patient care quality and successful outcomes,” said Dan Rodrigues, Founder and CEO of Kareo. “We’re excited about the opportunity to contribute our efforts to the compelling vision of CommonWell.”

• PointClickCare’s cloud-based software platform helps more than 10,000 senior living and skilled nursing communities to achieve results that matter – enriching the lives of their residents for better outcomes, improving financial and operational health and mitigating risk. The company’s person-centered approach to managing senior care ensures providers can collaborate securely, across care settings with confidence.

• Surgical Information Systems (SIS) joins as CommonWell’s first vendor solely focused on providing solutions specific to the perioperative process. As CommonWell prepares to develop new use cases, SIS’ expertise and knowledge of the complex surgical environment will serve to enhance CommonWell’s ability to offer real-world interoperability services that are functional for specialty care settings.

To date, CommonWell’s services—patient identification, record location, patient privacy and consent, and trusted data access—are live in six states including North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Massachusetts, Washington and Illinois. More than 20 provider locations are using the services, and more than 26,000 persons have consented to enroll on CommonWell’s network.

For more information on participating and membership levels, visit the CommonWell Health Alliance website.

CommonWell Health Alliance is a not-for-profit trade association of health IT companies working together to create universal access to health care data. CommonWell is open to all organizations that are committed to making patient data available to providers regardless of where care occurs. Members support the belief that provider access to this data must be built into health information technologies at a reasonable cost for use by a broad range of health care providers and the populations and people they serve.