“One of the most important achievements of the challenge is that it engaged New Yorkers in this critical discussion,” David Whitlinger, executive director at the New York eHealth Collaborative, said in a news release.
“The NYeC Design Challenge is proof that extraordinary things are possible when we leverage creative developers and designers and the preferences of end users,” Dr. Rebecca Mitchell Coelius, medical officer for innovation at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, said in the release.
The collaborative is administered under a $22.4 million federal grant under Coelius' office. The organization oversees New York's statewide health information exchange. Its Patient Portal for New Yorkers, which is to be made available to the public in 2014, builds on the Veterans Affairs Department's Blue Button initiative to provide veterans easy and secure access to their personal healthcare records. The next step begins Wednesday when the New York eHealth Collaborative releases a request for proposals from vendors to work on portal development.
“As New York moves forward with innovative projects to better integrate health information and medical records into patient care, it is essential that patients have access to their healthcare records so they can be engaged in managing their health,” Dr. Nirav Shah, health commissioner for New York, said in the release. “This new portal will be user-friendly, secure and easy to navigate, allowing New Yorkers to review and share their healthcare records and communicate with their healthcare providers.”
Follow Rachel Landen on Twitter: @MHrlanden
