The New Jersey Innovation Institute has received a $2.9 million grant from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to help the Department of Health ensure the sharing of quality data through its New Jersey Health Information Network.

Today, patients' electronic health records live in a number of different silos, such as doctors' offices, hospitals and urgent care facilities, and it is difficult to exchange protected healthcare information among providers. The grant will make it possible for NJII to develop and manage an accurate and reliable Master Person Index that will house a patient's records from all of these facilities. It will have the ability to transmit the records to care providers as needed.

The data platform will be rolled out initially to healthcare provider groups in the Newark metro region. It will be expanded over the next few years to facilities throughout the state.

The grant to the Innovation Institure is one in a total $38 million ONC disbursed this week among 12 organizations to help health data exchange.

[See also: ONC gives $38M for health data exchange.]

"We're honored to be recipients of this grant from the HHS and to have the opportunity to put NJII's innovative technology and services to work in advancing patient care here in New Jersey," said Donald Sebastian, the president of NJII, in a statement.
 
"The need for the safe, secure and effective exchange of healthcare information among physicians, hospitals, home health providers and insurers is vital to the wellbeing of the people of New Jersey," added Tomas Gregorio, NJII's senior executive director of healthcare delivery systems. "We are eager to advance health information technology through this grant."

"With this grant, the Institute will support the further development of the New Jersey Health Information Network, which will expand the use of health information technology and health information exchange to better coordinate patient care in our state," New Jersey Health Commissioner Mary O'Dowd said in a news release.

The innovation institute is a New Jersey IT corporation that applies the intellectual and technological resources of the state's science and technology university to challenges identified by industry partners. Through its Innovation Labs, it brings the expertise to key economic sectors, including healthcare delivery systems, bio-pharmaceutical production, civil infrastructure, defense and homeland security and financial services.

[See also: Epic latest to drop fees for data exchange.]