On May 12, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) hosted a well-attended kickoff meeting for the HEAL NY Phase 5 awardees and their stakeholder organizations. This phase of the HEAL NY program will focus on advancing health information technology (HIT) interoperability and electronic health record adoption in New York State.  DOH, along with the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC), will serve as the intermediary for HEAL NY awardees, as well as other health care stakeholders involved in HIT projects, to encourage collaboration on State and regional implementation efforts.  

At the kickoff, Lori Evans, Deputy Commissioner for the Office of Health Information Technology and Transformation, presented details on the statewide strategy for HIT, as well as the structure, workflow, and agenda of the “Statewide Collaboration Process.” This process will be a multi-stakeholder effort to develop policies, technical standards, and operational guidance for the Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY), an infrastructure to connect health information exchange projects across the State. DOH and NYeC also announced the creation of several workgroups that will start to address key areas including protocols and services, clinical priorities, and privacy and security. GNYHA members and staff will participate in each of these workgroups as they relate to hospitals as key stakeholders and participants in health information exchange. For more information about the HEAL NY Phase 5 projects by region, visit http://www.health.state.ny.us/technology/projects/regions/.