Most of New Mexico's major health insurance and medical providers will soon be linked through a statewide disease-management database.
The New Mexico Health Information Collaborative is funded by a $1.5 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The project was spearheaded by the Lovelace Clinic Foundation.
Participants include Lovelace Sandia Health System, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico, Presbyterian Healthcare Services, University of New Mexico Hospital, Heart Hospital of New Mexico, Holy Cross Hospital and the New Mexico Medical Society.
The goal is to gather data from all major health providers to improve the quality of information that patients, employers, plans and providers can access.
The database will focus on diabetes, pediatric asthma, depression and lower back pain.
The system would not only benefit physicians and insurance companies, it would be accessible by patients.
"If you feed patients data back on a regular basis, patients do change their behaviors," said Martin Hickey, the former Lovelace Health System CEO who helped organize the collaborative.
Researchers will also be able to easily access statewide patient information. Physicians will also be able to access their patients' information, regardless of their health plan.
The collaborative plans to create a Web-based portal over the next year. All personal information will be secured.
