OnePartner will host the region’s healthcare records

KINGSPORT, TN - ActiveHealth Management, Cariten PHP and OnePartner all announced today their support for CareSpark, a leading health information exchange.

To address regional health issues, CareSpark is working to build a technical infrastructure to enable secure exchange of health information among physician offices, hospitals, public health departments, pharmacies, laboratories and imaging centers and to engage patients and purchasers of health care for more effective, efficient use of health resources. Towards this goal, CareSpark has secured more than $1,800,000 in financial contributions from local organizations and state agencies in Tennessee and Virginia, and more than $950,000 contributions by regional and national partners who are collaborating in the effort.

These resources have helped CareSpark to proceed with planning and development of the infrastructure required for accurate matching and secure exchange of patient records, which will allow coordination of patient care among multiple healthcare providers. The system will be launched by year-end, hosted at the new Advanced Technology and Application Center (ATAC) which is under construction in Duffield, Virginia. OnePartner, a division of Holston Medical Group, will provide data center services for CareSpark, engaging other regional technology companies such as CGI, Intellithought, LucentGlow and Deliberare to perform services in their respective areas of expertise.

Tom Deaderick, Vice-President for Business Development at OnePartner, noted that CareSpark is among the first organizations to take advantage of the region's only commercially-available data center with high-level security and redundancy. "While this facility will not be limited to health care users, we certainly aspire to showcase our region's ability to serve CareSpark and other sophisticated users who need the highest levels of security and reliability for their operations."

Representatives from ActiveHealth Management, a member of the CareSpark RHIO Consortium formed in September 2006, also announced today their collaboration with CareSpark to pilot real-time clinical decision support as part of a regional health information exchange infrastructure."CareSpark shares our vision for the widespread adoption of clinical best practices, supported by technology that helps physicians and patients make better-informed decisions from among treatment and care options available," said Dr. Lonny Reisman, CEO of ActiveHealth Management.

Owen Poole, CEO of Cariten PHP and a member of the CareSpark board of directors, announced their company's intent to offer decision support services to their customers and members as a part of their health plan benefits, beginning with approximately 9,500 enrolled by Mountain States Health Alliance. "It is obvious that quality care results in safer, more convenient, lest costly services to patients, and we are willing to invest in the CareSpark effort because we are convinced that we will all benefit: patients, providers, payers and purchasers.

"It is so exciting to see the pieces and parts coming together, after three years of hard work," said Dr. John Dreyzehner, a physician with the Virginia Department of Health who is currently serving as chair of the CareSpark board of directors. "We are grateful for the support of those who are stepping forward today, to join those who have already contributed to our effort-and we look forward to the day when we will celebrate together the marked improvements we expect to see in our regional health status.

"CareSpark is a nonprofit organization established in 2005 to develop and implement a collaborative system for health improvements in a 17-county region. Collectively, residents in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia experience poor health overall, with significant disparities from other regions in the country for diabetes, heart disease, stroke, asthma, certain cancers and premature death for those ages 45-60. This region also experiences a higher cost of health care per capita than in other portions of the country.