The Civitas Networks for Health and the Patient Centered Data Home (PCDH) Governance Council have selected Velatura Public Benefit Corp. to provide the technology solution to support a consolidated national PCDH initiative.
Civitas, previously known as the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative and the Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement, represents more than 170 local health organizations from across the country, moving data to improve health outcomes for more than 95 percent of the U.S. population.
PCDH is a collaboration of more than 45 health information exchanges delivering alerts to providers for millions of clinical encounters each month. The continued growth of PCDH will further advance important regional and nationwide interoperability progress, Civitas said, adding that the engagement with Velatura will further PCDH goals to ensure that the robust data exchange among Civitas members continues to close the loop on care when a patient is seen outside their normal care area.
Velatura was established to extend the Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services’ modular and scalable interoperability products and services for access and use outside of Michigan.
For example, Velatura serves as the infrastructure for the New Jersey Health Information Network. It has worked with GaHIN, Georgia’s statewide HIE, to replace its legacy HIE system with Velatura’s cloud-based HIE platform. Also, the Wisconsin Statewide Health Information Network (WISHIN) selected Velatura to serve as the back-end technical platform for the state designated HIE.
Velatura’s United States QHIN (USQHIN) entity has three focus areas: launching a National ADT Hub Network (NAHN), preparing to apply for QHIN status under TEFCA to provide QHIN services, and establishing national network connectivity shared services for its family of organizations and customers.
“Civitas and the PCDH Governance Council are committed to collaboration and to positioning all Civitas members for future success,” said Lisa Bari, CEO of Civitas, in a statement announcing the deal at the organization’s annual conference in San Antonio, Texas, “After careful consideration, we have identified Velatura to deploy a new centralized technology platform for the national PCDH network. Velatura brings longstanding commitment to PCDH and the HIE space alongside technology and boots-on-the-ground experience. We believe their cloud-native technology platform will enable us to transition current functionality swiftly while positioning ourselves for emerging market opportunities, all while honoring the critical role HIEs play in linking existing communities of trust and preserving local governance.”
Velatura said it anticipates that this relationship will provide a national opportunity for all Civitas member HIEs, regional health improvement collaboratives, community information exchanges, and aspiring health data utilities to solidify the integral role that these entities play in interstate health data exchange and health improvement activities.
“The national PCDH network opportunity with Velatura builds on the early success and vision of the PCDH members and is a critical step toward leveraging HIE-powered interstate data exchange at national scale to further interoperability, impact national public health efforts, and harness the true scalability of the cloud,” says Tim Pletcher, CEO of Velatura, in a statement. “Velatura believes there is enormous potential in using ADT data at a national level to advance national interoperability, inform critical public health efforts, support emergency response efforts, and more.”
“What began as a vision to make sure that a care team could get ADT notifications and other key clinical data for a patient who is seen while traveling across state lines or between regions can now evolve to solve a myriad of local and national health challenges,” said Keith Kelley, COO of Indiana Health Information Exchange and the Chair of the PCDH Governance Council, in a statement.
