The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) launched its online CIO State Network (StateNet) that it says will enhance communication among healthcare chief information officers on state matters related to the HITECH Act and on other key state health IT activity.
The new site, www.ciostatenet.org, is designed to enable all CIOs public access to information, communication and coordination among IT executives at the state level. The project will go live later this month and has at least one CIO volunteer for all 50 states, including Washington, D.C.
Under the HITECH Act, states are tasked with having a state HIE plan; providing a state-designated entity responsible for health IT; offering strategic and operational plans for HIE infrastructure; and providing state-level directories to enable statewide technology platforms for HIEs. To support CIO leaders in each state, CHIME has developed a toolkit to help gather basic information about HIT activity, such as identifying the HIT planning authority, strategic and operational plans, state-level directories, and HIE business and operational processes. In addition to the development of the toolkit, CHIME is providing resource materials, including an inventory of state recovery and HIT websites. The organization also has developed individual list-serves for each state, and is creating publicly available Web pages for sharing state-specific information.
