In history, there has never been a time such as this where there are such rapid advancements in technology, an appetite for big data acquisition and now, a new political landscape to navigate. To maintain a competitive advantage, it is important for industry leaders to convene and collaborate to chart the new direction of change. eHI is strategically connected to various federal agencies and key private players who are at the forefront of this change, to advise and provide policy responses that represent the views of our multi-sectoral stakeholders. eHI provides exclusive opportunities for members to give recommendations to federal organizations such as CMS and to participate in cutting edge research projects being led by the NIH, such as the Precision Medicine Initiative. As member organizations decide on business strategies, this is the time to participate in a multi-stakeholder collaborative to obtain insights of forecasts from industry thought leaders and be a part of initiatives that can transform the industry at large. Only available to eHI members, committees and workgroups provide an exclusive opportunity for participants to contribute to knowledge around industry best practices and be recognized in publications for their work.

For over a decade, eHealth Initiative (eHI) members have worked to drive improvement in the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare by promoting the use of technology and information. eHealth Initiative convenes a variety of forums with its members including workgroups, advisory boards, executive committees and leadership activities to identify challenges, strategies and best practices.  All activities are guided by the 2020 Roadmap: a multi-stakeholder framework to enable coordinated efforts by the public and private sector to transform care delivery through information and technology. Groups focus on identifying success stories, crafting principles and recommendations, producing impactful policy recommendations and leading research to support healthcare transformation.

The following groups meet virtually through web conferences every other month. One in-person meeting is held at the Annual Member Meeting each year.  

• Data Analytics Committee
• Data Access and Privacy Committee
• Interoperability Committee
• Patient and Provider Technology Adoption Committee
• Executive Advisory Board on Privacy and Security Workgroup
• Policy Steering Committee (PSC)
• eHI Member Policy Lunch

Selection Process for Committee and Workgroups

Executives are generally “selected” or nominated to serve on groups. Requirements for each group are specified below. Members can self-nominate and participate in several groups, other groups have specific selection requirements. eHealth Initiative strives to convene multi-stakeholder groups that represent all perspectives.  Many groups meet virtually through web conferences. If you are interested in joining a group, please contact Claudia Ellison by phone at 202-624-3280 or email claudia.ellison@ehidc.org.

 Committee & Workgroup Objective

Workgroups & committees provide insight into the needs of the healthcare industry and possible solutions. These forums discover new examples of success stories that will be added to our online resource center.  They also identify overarching trends and give recommendations on best practices as well as innovation models. Finally, they identify priorities that can be recommended for federal partners to take action.

Connecting Communities Collaborative

The sharing of health information across organizations is critical to improving the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare. For over 17 years, eHI has convened healthcare professionals, including Health Information Exchange organizations (HIEs) committed to transforming health through standards-based interoperability and meaningful data exchange at the local level. Since 2004, eHI has closely tracked the progress of HIEs and interoperability through a renowned Annual Survey, which is considered the industry standard.

From our long history to the present, eHI is a neutral stakeholder, dedicated to including HIEs as a prominent force, amongst our other industry partners, in strategizing solutions. The Connecting Communities Collaborative is a national multi-stakeholder initiative designed to raise national awareness of the value of and accelerate the use of electronic health information to address current U.S. health care challenges, including those related to quality, safety and efficiency.

One of the primary goals of the Collaborative is to be a catalyst for national dialogue on the benefits and value of electronic health information for various health care improvement strategies to support both policy change and related national efforts focused on health IT standards for interoperability, financing, and policies for information sharing.

With input from national leaders across every sector of health care, the Collaborative will significantly increase understanding by public and private sector leaders—across every sector of health care, on how these current health care-related processes can be significantly improved by using electronic health information, thereby creating a set of “business cases” and a sustainable model for using health IT and health information exchange to improve health and health care in the United States.

The Collaborative provides participants an opportunity to engage in a forum to share ideas, learn best practices and work with communities and states across the country through monthly virtual meetings.

The following summarizes the key activities of the Collaborative: 

• Provide broad support to health care improvement activities at the local and state level through eHI’s multi stakeholder collaborative forum; calls to be held monthly and listed on eHI event page
• Create a “learning community” of thought leaders interested in exploring the use of electronic health information to support the healthcare focus area
• Widely disseminate information using a wide range of mechanisms, including the web and targeted briefings
• Develop policy recommendations to clear barriers to and accelerate adoption

eHI will be conducting the next HIE survey with ONC - stay tuned!

Participants of the Collaborative do not have to be members of eHI and there is no charge to attend these meetings. If you have any questions about the Collaborative, please contact Kayli.Davis@ehidc.org.

Data Analytics Committee

The ability to collect and exchange health data is meaningless unless it is appropriately accessed and analyzed to inform clinical decisions about an individual’s condition and possible interventions.  Data stored in disease registries and repositories create opportunities for us to develop a more refined healthcare consumer matching process, analyze and predict trends, and even make predictive assumptions about an individual and population.

As the world of health IT matures, so do the possibilities to make informed care decisions, deliver quality care, improve patient outcomes, and ultimately lower total cost of care.  Industry leaders have to overcome a number of organizational and process challenges preventing them from fully participating in proper data access and use.

Data stored in disease registries and repositories create opportunities for us to develop a more refined healthcare consumer matching process, analyze and predict trends, and even make predictive assumptions about an individual and population.

This workgroup will focus on the growing role of analytics in healthcare and how we utilize data to make informed clinical decisions at both the individual and population level.

Data Access and Privacy Committee

The rate of digitalization within the industry is at an all-time high as patients are increasingly managing their own health with their personal connected devices. Hospitals must now transmit patient data electronically in order to comply with federal legislation. Although there are obvious benefits to this widespread digitization within the industry, the major drawback is that it creates vulnerabilities that can be exploited by perpetrators by creating more access points for cyberattacks within systems. This is evidenced by the spike in ransomware incidents over the past two year.

There is a need to learn from past hackings to be better prepared for the future. Our industry can also learn from other mature industries such as Banking, that have built up strong resistance to hackers. With the rapid adoption of technology in healthcare, we recognize that this creates new challenges for us as an industry to safeguard patient data. Effective strategies to address these problems can only be conceptualized through combined stakeholder forums such as this one, to merge skills and develop innovative solutions for today’s security and privacy problems.

This workgroup will convene thought leaders to collaborate and synergize ideas of ways to better prepare for cybersecurity issues.

Interoperability Committee

Interoperability involves information and technology systems working together within and across organizational boundaries to advance effective delivery of health care for individuals and communities. Today, interoperability is not just a common buzzword, but a concept deeply embedded in Meaningful Use implementation efforts and nation-wide initiatives in both the developed and developing world.

Consensus continues to grow around commonly accepted interoperability rules and standards for healthcare information systems, but many questions remain about how to achieve true interoperability in the U.S. and across the world. Collaborative, capacity, technical, training, legal, policy and other interoperability barriers are well recognized and increasingly being addressed on a global scale.

The 2020 Roadmap Interoperability Workgroup is comprised of over 60 well-recognized experts and is tasked to examine these issues by discussing how to better incentivize and attain interoperability across communities, while facilitating coordination and cooperation among key stakeholders.

The workgroup interacts with industry leaders and other stakeholders to identify best practices and use cases that promote interoperable exchange of health data across disparate systems and unaffiliated providers.

Patient and Provider Technology Adoption Committee

The 2020 Roadmap identifies the need for “efforts to create a sustainable health IT ecosystem by tackling the systemic issues, within private sector control, that have been hindering adoption and meaningful utilization, while identifying priorities that can be recommended for federal partners to take action on.”
 

This group identifies emerging best practices which are demonstrating success in the field. The group engages patient-consumer experts, providers, payers and HIT leaders to seek out and report on excellence in the industry, including the motivators that are driving stakeholders.
 

By harmonizing interests, this group will ensure that patients, consumer tools, devices, and mobile apps are part of the considerations of best practices. The group convenes executives from multi-stakeholder groups to identify “success stories” in the private sector that transform care through use of health information technology in driving business and clinical motivators.

Executive Advisory Board on Privacy and Security

Industry leaders must overcome a number of privacy and security challenges to fully participating in proper data access and use. This new reality necessitates an everyday, common-sense approach to managing and protecting data. eHI’s Executive Advisory Board on Privacy and Security is comprised of chief information officers (CIO), chief information security officers (CISO) and chief privacy officers (CPO) from payer, provider and pharmaceutical organizations.

Group Charter

The purpose of the Advisory Board is to identify the key privacy and security challenges and opportunities facing executives in their institutions; and to provide feedback to government agencies on the impact of new regulations.

The group meets quarterly with federal regulators and industry experts to discuss privacy and security concerns. The group identifies industry best practices and other regulatory tools available to aid in the management and protection of health data. The following areas are explored.

• data security

• appropriate data sharing,
• granular data control
• data provenance
• data matching – to increase appropriate data access and use by patients and providers.

Selection Process for Membership and Staffing

The group meets quarterly in person in Washington, DC and is only open to chief information officers (CIO), chief information security officers (CISO) and chief privacy officers (CPO) from payer, provider and pharmaceutical organizations. Additional experts are invited to participate in specific meetings.

If you are a CPO, CSIO, or CIO from a payer, provider or pharmaceutical organization and would like to join the next meeting, please contact Claudia.Ellison@ehidc.org .

Invitation-Only  

eHI Member Policy Lunch

Lunch gatherings are an opportunity to hear breaking intelligence on the hottest healthcare topics in government and industry. Top speakers from legislative, regulatory and technical fields offer insight about key developments and progress markers in federal health and HIT policy, and thoughts on the policy challenges that lay ahead.  The in-person lunches provide a valuable opportunity to network with eHI members and to hear about eHI’s latest work on the Hill, with the Administration, and on the 2020 Roadmap. If you would like more information, please contact Claudia.Ellison@ehidc.org.

Policy Steering Committee (PSC)

As the only national organization that comprehensively represents all sectors of stakeholders in the healthcare industry, eHI's healthcare Policy Steering Committee (PSC) is of core importance. eHealth Initiative (eHI) is an important player in advising administration officials, Congress, and other stakeholders on public policy regarding the use of health information technology (IT) and health information exchange to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare.  The eHealth Initiative (eHI) Board of Directors created the eHI Policy Steering Committee (PSC) in 2005 as a mechanism for considering eHI positions on key policies from a multi-stakeholder perspective.

Group Charter

Individuals on the PSC serve as individuals, not organizations. Each member has a strong understanding of the policy process, as well as eHI’s mission, goals, and agenda. PSC members view policy proposals in the context of eHI policy and positions and make recommendations on positions that eHI should take, rather than making decisions based on the positions of their respective organizations.

The PSC is an 11-member board composed of nationally recognized and seasoned health policy experts. To support our eHI 2020 Roadmap goal of improving the quality, safety, and efficiency of care by promoting the use of technology and information, eHI defines policy as a priority and relies on the expertise of this group to develop recommendations that can guide national policies and legislations.

Selection Process for Membership and Staffing

PSC members are selected through an open search process to fill existing vacancies and serve for two-year terms. A significant time commitment is required of all PSC members. Given the rapidly changing environment on Capitol Hill, in the Administration and the private sector, the PSC must be nimble and responsive in taking positions on issues where eHI has existing policy. To serve on the PSC, members must commit to participation in at least 80% of PSC meetings and conference calls; and meeting deadlines set by eHI staff for individual responses to input on policy proposals.

This group is staffed by Ticia Gerber, Senior Advisor at gerbergroup2@gmail.com

Electronic Medication Adherence Collaborative (eMAC)

Poor medication adherence costs the healthcare system nearly $300 billion a year and takes the lives of 125,000 Americans annually. Solving medication adherences issues would have a significant impact on downstream costs and improve outcomes for patients. Current medication adherence initiatives are siloed and narrowly focused. Pharmacies, clinicians, payers, pharmaceutical companies and EHR vendors are spending money on adherence programs, but unsure of their effectiveness. Many of these silo efforts are disjointed and lack a multi-disciplinary approach. A forum is need to share information about efforts and coordinate across the spectrum of healthcare stakeholders.

The rational for the need for increased studies and collaboration in this space is clear. This is a high need area that is costing the industry billions of dollars annually, but moreover is detrimental to the health of patients. Here are some key facts for consideration:

• Global Medication Adherence Market is forecasted to experience significant growth during 2016-2022. As per the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) report on the global aging population, the population of people aged 60 years or above is growing with high rate. (P&S Market Research)
• Nonadherence results in an economic burden of $100 to $300 billion per year. Annually, nonadherence costs $2,000 per patient in physician visits. (American College of Preventative Medicine)
• Nonadherence to medications is estimated to cause 125,000 deaths annually (American College of Preventative Medicine)
• Overall, about 20% to 50% of patients are nonadherent to medical therapy (American College of Preventative Medicine)
• Up to 30% of prescriptions are not filled. (Express Scripts)
• People with chronic conditions only take about half of their prescribed medicine. The rate of nonadherence is expected to increase as the burden of chronic disease increases. (American College of Preventative Medicine)
• Patients with psychiatric disabilities are less likely to be compliant. (American College of Preventative Medicine)
• Recent research has found medication nonadherence to result in: 5.4 times increased risk of hospitalization, re-hospitalization, or premature death for patients with high blood pressure (American College of Preventative Medicine)
• The most typical customer-cited reasons for non-adherence are: complex therapies, cost, cultural or religious beliefs, disagreement with their diagnosis, forgetfulness, health literacy, irregular lifestyle and side effects.

Project Objective

eHealth Initiative (eHI) is launching a multi-stakeholder Electronic Medication Adherence Collaborative (eMAC) to identify how information technology and data analytics can be used to improve the adherence to medications. This initiative will take a consumer approach to understand the behavioral-economic factors that influence patient behaviors and preferences.

eMAC creates a forum for data transparencies to encourage stakeholders to work more closely together, and ensure EHR vendors have systems to facilitate the flow of data. The initial 9-month eMAC project would create a forum to share information about existing initiatives and recommend areas for sharing data and partnering.

The main objectives are:

• Introduce the medication adherence issue as a multi-stakeholder problem that requires a consumer-focused collaborative approach.
• Harvest the work that has been done before by bringing key researchers and thought leaders to the table. Share best practice examples from the different analytical and behavioral approaches to educate different stakeholders on the effectiveness of current programs.
• Identify areas where benefits could be gained by combining approaches, data and solutions across the continuum of care. 
• Release consensus based industry and policy recommendations to combine solutions and launch a plan of action supported by the key collaborators. Recommendations will be publicly disseminated for general and professional audiences.

Project Milestones

In collaboration with leading stakeholders across the industry and under the guidance of experts from leading healthcare organizations, eHealth Initiative will:

• Launch the project and outline the initiative. (Spring 2017)
• Convene executive advisory board meetings of respected leaders to ensure the objectives are clearly defined and begin sharing best practice examples. (Spring 2017)
• Executives will convene again to share best practices and participate in a consensus process to develop cross industry recommendations (Summer 2017)
• Disseminate initial best practice findings virtually to public via webinar (Summer 2017)
• Host a fall gathering to share consensus based recommendations and get industry feedback (Fall 2017).
• Release and disseminate final recommendations (Winter 2017) through virtual event and press release.

eHealth Initiative will convene an Advisory Board for eMAC with respected leaders to ensure the objectives and deliverables are clearly defined for the duration of the proposal. The committee will be comprised of multi-stakeholders from the private sector. This Board will meet in person at least two times during the duration of the project. Supporters will be recognized as founding members and serve on the Board.

This collaborative will explore areas where analytical solutions might be valuable in assisting behavioral interventions of medication management. Specifically, identifying areas where stakeholders in the private sector might partner to share data or develop collaborative approaches across the continuum of care, in an effort to improve outcomes and reduce costs.

Stakeholders to Engage

Founding supporters of the collaborative will assist in identifying stakeholders to engage, including, but not limited to: providers, pharmacy benefit management (PBM) companies, payers, employers, patient medication information systems, analytic vendors, pharmaceutical manufacturers, patient groups, and other key partners.