QHINs, Health Data Exchange, FHIR, AI and More with CommonWell Health Alliance

At HIMSS, we sat down to talk with CommonWell Health Alliance to learn about their passion for interoperability and some of the latest happenings with the CommonWell community. This included an update on CommonWell’s new technical service provider, ELLKAY and their recent designation by the federal government as a Qualified Health Information Network (QHIN). CommonWell was formed 11 years from a consortium of major EHR vendors to carry out the mandate for interoperable data exchange in the HITECH and Affordable Care acts. As Executive Director Paul L Wilder points out, they are a “switchboard” through which clients can find patient data, but CommonWell doesn’t maintain any patient data itself (unlike, for instance, many health information exchanges). Along with these important updates, we also asked Liz Buckle, Director of Product at CommonWell Health Alliance, to talk about their work on CommonWell 2.0 and their journey to TEFCA. Plus, Buckle shares with us a bit about how they’re approaching FHIR and what role that’s going to play for CommonWell going forward. Learn more about CommonWell Health Alliance: https://www.commonwellalliance.org/ Health IT Community: https://www.healthcareittoday.com/