The Indian Health Service (IHS) is in the midst of upgrading their Electronic Health Record (EHR) and related systems to conform to new regulations for meaningful use of EHRs.  Also as noted in that article, they are working to support requirements for health data exchange, including exchange with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) NHIN as well as to support a Master Person Index (MPI).

What is interesting about working with the U.S. Government is that certain contract information is public record, and this RFQ outlines how HHS intends to award a purchase order for MatchMetrix to NextGate to help build their exchange with NHIN and manage the MPI.  From that RFQ:

“Only the brand name specified will meet the Government’s need.  …  HHS intends to purchase a software license from NextGate Solutions to assist in the implementation of the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) and to manage the Master Person Index (MPI) with a browser based interface.  These projects will help IHS modernize and extend electronic health information technology to improve access, quality, safety, and overall health status of American Indians and Alaskan Natives.  The NextGate software license will provide the management tools to help IHS achieve compliance with mandated federal requirements, including the HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) Act, the AHIC-Interoperable Nationwide Health Exchange, the Federal Healthcare Architecture, and the HSPD12-HHS Identity associated with evolving criteria for Meaningful Use Electronic Health Record Certification provisions.”

The RFQ goes on to highlight the reasons for selecting NextGate which include:

• NextGate has adapted a functional core component of NHIN CONNECT.
• IHS has a unique environment and NextGate is already developing the schema for IHS’ MPI project.
• NextGate is already working with IHS on other NHIN and MPI related projects including NHIN Health Information Exchange (HIE) and the Personal Health Record (PHR).
• NextGate has comprehensive knowledge of IHS’s Resource and Patient Management System and has already developed messaging capabilities between it and NHIN, MPI, and IHS’ PHR.

And it was great to see that the contract was officially awarded late last week.

NextGate is excited to be a part of this project that will enable the IHS to deliver improved and more cost effective patient care to their members.

We just completed an MPI implementation using Mural for one of our NHIN clients and we were very pleased with how robust and stable Mural was.  In the process of loading a few million patient records however we discovered performance problems with the loader packaged with Mural.  Loading 200,000 records took over a day, and after waiting several days  to load millions of records we simply aborted the process.  We dealt with this by using our own batch loading application which we developed in house for other EMPI customers over the past several years.  The loader uses its own efficient file based indexing techniques that cuts out all of the latency associated with database operations.  We can process 200,000 records in approximately 30 minutes on a laptop, and millions of records in about 12 hours.  The loader is now part of our standard MatchMetrix distribution and is a critical part of each of our implementations.

We are excited that many healthcare organizations are taking a focused look into eHealth, interoperability, information exchanges and NHIN. One of the critical components of any eHealth solution is the Master Person Index. The MPI makes it possible to create a single identifier for a patient record. This identifier can then be shared within a facility or across an integrated network, generating numerous clinical and financial benefits.

When investigating an MPI, it is important to distinguish between a generic application and one that is designed specifically to meet the needs of the healthcare environment. At NextGate, we have been designing and implementing MPIs for healthcare since 1994. Our MatchMetrix™ MPI is based on the Mural open source MDM engine, but we have tailored it for healthcare situations. Our changes and enhancements provide for faster implementation timeframes, specialized functions, and real world usability. Here is a brief comparison of MatchMetrix and Mural (the MPI mentioned in the NHIN architecture).

Welcome everyone to the NextGate Blog, a place where you can learn about our activities and share your thoughts. We anticipate this will be a good forum to discuss the constant changes in the marketplace, and an easy way to distribute information about what we’ve learned and what we’re thinking about.

Right now, the topics occupying our thoughts are:
• All things related to NHIN architecture and deployment
• Our MatchMetrix Suite for MDM and EMPI
• Mural and other open source solutions
• Community RHIOs, IHEs and the like
• Upgrading Java CAPS environments
• Our brand new offices! Continue Reading…