Wendy Wolf leads the Maine Health Access Foundation, which is funding the program along with the state, and participating insitutions. "An elderly fisherman is out on his boat on Casco Bay and suffers a stroke. Because of his stroke, he's unable to talk or tell anyone what medicines he's been taking. HealthInfoNet can answer those quesitons." Wolf says the program could also help the patient going to see a new doctor. The medical records have not followed the patient, and need to be faxed.
"I can't imagine any other business doing day-to-day business relying on a fax machine any longer but Health Info Net will make that something of the past," she explains.
Besides providing more timely, better informed care, Maine's program is supposed to save money by helping doctors and other providers avoid re-ordering tests or prescriptions. No other state is carrying out such a program on as large a scale as Maine's, say HealthInfoNet coordinators. Most other similar programs are contained to a city or region.
"It seems like a very impressive system, especially given how young it is," remarks Dr. David Blumenthal, who is the Obama administration's top health information technology official. Blumenthal was in Portland to give a speech to local health care leaders, and was debriefed on HealthInfoNet at Maine Medical Center.
He says he was most impressed by hospitals' willingness to share information. "I would imagine that there are other states of comparable size that will not get as quickly and certainly haven't gotten as quickly to where Maine is and so I think it is more than that. I think it has something to do about the people here or the health care system. I'd like to know so I can package it and export it."
Most of the 15 hospitals taking part belong to one of Maine's four largest health care systems, which are based out of Portland, Bangor, Lewiston and Augusta.
That means the medical records of a Maine Med patient would be accessible at Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle.This is only with the patient's consent, however.
"Anybody who participates in HealthInfoNet as a patient has to give permission to have that information transferred into HealthInfoNet." Dr. John Vogt is a pediatrician at Martin's Point, a statewide physician practice participating in the program. Vogt is among the 20 physicians who've been test-driving IT for a few months. He says patients would be asked at the time of their visit whether they were OK with their medical history going into the database.
"If they said yes, then that information in real time is transferred as it's generated on you," Vogt explains. "So if you have an office visit today I write that information into your health record and that information is transferred within about 15 minutes into HealthInfoNet."
On the issue of patients' privacy, HealthInfoNet consulted with different advocacy groups, such as those for people with mental illness, HIV/AIDS and senior citizens.
"I think most people assume that our members would be averse to electronic health records because of the confidentiality," says Nancy Kelleher, Maine state director of AARP. "Actually they're looking more forward to having their physicians and their caregivers actually be able talk to one another and know what one another is doing."
HealthInfoNet's executive director Dev Culver cautions against expecting the new system to be glitch-free. "You can never guarantee that something won't happen. It's just not viable. But quite frankly the medical information is of limited value on a resale basis and most hackers are going where they can make money and gain prestige."
Culver says the demonstration program has the money to run until next spring. By then more than 1,300 health care providers are expected to be using the system. And at that point Culver hopes to see financial assistance from the insurance industry, which could benefit from the more improved care that HealthInfoNet promotes.
He also wants more hosptials and physican practices to sign on. Incentive programs by the federal government for health care providers to adopt electronic medical records may help his cause. "The provider community has a natural reason to join anyway because there is efficiencies and benefits of having that level of connection but now they have another incentive. In just the last couple of weeks, I've been hearing from people when can I connect."
In the meantime, HealthInfoNet coordinators are also counting on getting direct help from the Obama administration. Federal health information chief Blumenthal says that $300 million in stimulus funds will go towards supporting information exchanges like HealthInfoNet.