American Academy of Family Physicians Unveils New Secure Electronic Messaging Service for Physicians Based on Surescripts Network for Clinical Interoperability
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Leading-edge collaboration aims to improve communication among
providers, enhance continuity of care, support achievement
of EHR meaningful use and advance the patient-centered
medical home model of care
WASHINGTON - The American Academy of Family
Physicians today announced AAFP Physicians Direct, a new service
that supports secure, electronic communication between physicians.
Built on the Surescripts Network for Clinical Interoperability,
this new AAFP service is part of a larger program to help
physicians more easily and securely share information such as
referrals, patient summaries, discharge summaries and lab results
when providing their patients' care. The innovative collaboration
will make the nation's leading health information network available
to nearly 75,000 family physicians across the United States.
AAFP physicians will be able to connect to the Surescripts network
and share information securely through the new AAFP Physicians
Direct web portal or a choice of electronic health record systems.
Amazing Charts, e-MDs and SOAPware also announced today that they
will connect their EHR systems to the Surescripts network and
collaborate in the Physicians Direct program.
With this new service, AAFP will leverage the Surescripts network
to provide electronic clinical interoperability among providers,
allowing them to break down communication barriers due to
incompatible technology and a lack of interoperability standards.
Clinical interoperability between health care providers is viewed
by experts as the next critical step to accelerate the digital
transformation of the nation's health care system. The advance of
clinical interoperability plays a central role in a number of
important national health care initiatives: improving continuity of
care; supporting the "meaningful use" of electronic health records;
and advancing the patient-centered medical home model of
care.
"We are proud to empower physicians with a digital tool that will
make their practice run more efficiently while improving the
overall quality of care they provide," said Glen Stream, MD, MBI,
president-elect of the AAFP. "AAFP Physicians Direct will enhance
communication among health care providers, and patients likely will
experience more seamless coordination and continuity of care.
Patients will benefit, and that's always a 'win.'"
"The AAFP has long played a leading role in advancing the adoption
and use of health IT," said Harry Totonis, president and CEO of
Surescripts. "Today they demonstrate their leadership once more.
Working together, AAFP will leverage the Surescripts network to
provide an easy-to-use, cost effective means of enabling the
nation's family doctors to connect and share information like never
before. AAFP's new services - available to physicians and other
health care providers serving large and small communities
throughout the United States - help ensure that everyone can take
part and benefit from the digital transformation of the nation's
health care system."
The AAFP, Surescripts and many other organizations have
collaborated with the federal government to create the standard
protocols to make this type of electronic clinical communication
possible. AAFP Physicians Direct will support all federal and state
policies and standards for health information exchange, including
privacy and security standards (such as HIPAA and state law), as
well as technology interoperability standards and message types
such as HL7, CCR and CCD. Use of standard protocols will allow AAFP
physicians to communicate via the Surescripts network with any
other physicians, whether they connect via an EHR, through a health
information exchange or large hospital system, through a portal, or
physicians using the new Direct Project protocols for clinical
exchange.
"I commend the AAFP for its inspired leadership in helping to
create the standard protocols and message types for clinical
exchange," said Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM, deputy national
coordinator for programs and policy at ONC. "AAFP Physicians Direct
is a health IT innovation that will help providers achieve
meaningful use and support continuity of care, which will reduce
costs and medical errors."
By enabling e-prescribing as well as the secure electronic
exchange of clinical information, the Surescripts network offers
broad support for the meaningful use of electronic health records.
Taken together, these capabilities help improve health care quality
and safety while reducing the cost of care.
For supporting statements from various stakeholder organizations,
visit http://www.aafp.org/media/physiciansdirect/.
How Family Physicians and Other Providers Can
Connect
Today's announcement introduces multiple new ways for physicians
to connect for clinical interoperability.
Subscribers to AAFP Physicians Direct will be able to securely
exchange messages with any other provider on the Surescripts
Network for Clinical Interoperability. Also, as a way to make
clinical interoperability as universal as possible, participants on
the Surescripts network will be able to send message alerts to any
other provider, including non subscribers. Message recipients will
retrieve messages from a secure web page within the Physicians
Direct portal and reply to messages for free. AAFP Physicians
Direct will be offered as a subscription service for $15 per
physician user per month. Subscribers will not be limited in the
number of messages they can send through the secure portal.
"We are pleased to offer a digital solution to improve
communication among primary care physicians, subspecialists and
other health care providers," said Steven Waldren, MD, director of
the AAFP Center for Health IT. "AAFP Physicians Direct will make
slow, fragmented and cumbersome patient referrals and follow-up
care a thing of the past."
"In four short months, the ability of one doctor to communicate
and share information with another has been redefined," said Cris
Ross, executive vice president of Surescripts. "The days of family
physicians having to fax or mail or hand deliver patient files to
specialists are over. For less money than what it costs to provide
basic cable to patients in their waiting room, clinical
interoperability will enable family physicians to share clinical
information with more providers in a more efficient and effective
way than ever before. Today's announcement represents a giant leap
toward providing the right information to the right provider at the
right time."
Family physicians have the option of connecting to the Surescripts
network through the new AAFP web portal as well as some of the
leading electronic health record systems.
For more information on AAFP Physicians Direct, visit www.aafp.org/physiciansdirect.
New Research Demonstrates Need for Clinical
Interoperability
A recent study by the Center for Studying Health System Change
showed that primary care and subspecialist physicians have
decidedly different views about how often their colleagues
communicate with them. They found that 69.3 percent of primary care
physicians reported regularly - "always" or "most of the time" -
sending a patient's history and the reason for the referral to the
subspecialist, but only 34.8 percent of subspecialists said they
regularly receive such information. On the flip side, 80.6 percent
of subspecialists said they regularly send consultation results to
the referring PCP, but only 62.2 percent of PCPs said they received
such information, the study found.
Primary care and subspecialist physicians who did not receive
timely communication regarding referrals and consultations were
more likely to report that their ability to provide high-quality
care was threatened.
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About the American Academy of Family
Physicians
Founded in 1947, the AAFP represents 97,600 physicians and medical
students nationwide. It is the only medical society devoted solely
to primary care.
Approximately one in four of all office visits are made to family
physicians. That is 228 million office visits each year - nearly 84
million more than the next largest medical specialty. Today, family
physicians provide more care for America's underserved and rural
populations than any other medical specialty. Family medicine's
cornerstone is an ongoing, personal patient-physician relationship
focused on integrated care.
To learn more about the specialty of family medicine, the AAFP's
positions on issues and clinical care, and for downloadable
multi-media highlighting family medicine, visit www.aafp.org/media. For information about
health care, health conditions and wellness, please visit the
AAFP's award-winning consumer website, www.FamilyDoctor.org.
About Surescripts
The Surescripts network supports the most comprehensive ecosystem
of health care organizations nationwide. Pharmacies, payers,
pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), physicians, hospitals, health
information exchanges and health technology firms rely on
Surescripts to more easily and securely share health information.
Guided by the principles of privacy, security, neutrality, choice,
transparency, collaboration and quality, Surescripts operates the
nation's largest health information network. By providing that
information for routine, recurring and emergency care, Surescripts
is committed to saving lives, improving efficiency and reducing the
cost of health care for all. For more information, go to www.surescripts.com and
follow us at twitter.com/surescripts.
