The Wyoming Department of Health is partnering with Medicity to develop a new health information exchange for the state. The HIE will be co-owned by the state's community providers – prioritizing stakeholder collaboration and transparency, officials say.

The Wyoming Frontier Information Exchange will be a centralized repository of clinical data for participating patients, powered in part by Medicity’s data aggregation and interoperability technology.

The collaborative HIE will feature Medicity tools such as Connect, Exchange, Explore and Community Interchange, offering providers access to a single, de-duplicated, comprehensive continuity of care document, officials say. The aim is to close gaps in care and offer a complete patient view for better population health.

[Also: CORHIO goes live with new tool to improve care documentation, efficiency]

Right now in the rural and sparsely populated state, "providers are struggling to coordinate quality care due to limited access to patient information," said James Bush, MD, Wyoming Medicaid medical director with the Wyoming Department of Health, in a statement.

"By forming the statewide HIE and utilizing Medicity’s solutions, we can build a community of health that will securely place comprehensive, usable data into the hands of our healthcare providers," he said. "Furthermore, we look forward to our partnership with Medicity to bring easier interstate connections and unlock the potential for greater information sharing."

Salt Lake City-based Medicity has a big presence in the western region of the U.S., and the plan is to leverage its experience in states such as Colorado and South Dakota to eventually move In the nearer term, the priority is to give community providers access patient records from labs, emergency rooms, physician practices and other sites throughout the state.

"We look forward to building a platform that brings easy access to all the clinical data and insights providers need to coordinate the best care for the patients they serve," said Patrice R. Wolfe, CEO of Medicity.

Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com