Epic and eClinicalWorks users can now exchange data on the Carequality framework from Healtheway.
Verona, Wis.-based Epic and Westborough, Mass.-based eClinicalWorks together serve more than 1,000 hospitals and 40,000 clinics. The interoperation is now being piloted with Entira Family Clinics, which uses eClinicalWorks EHR, and HealthEast Hospital, which uses Epic, both located in St. Paul, Minn.
Carequality, an industry coalition to advance interoperability, now includes 70 organizations. It is operated by McLean, Va.-based Healtheway, which includes industry sponsors such as the American Medical Association, Charlotte, N.C.-based Carolinas HealthCare System, Kansas City, Mo.-based Cerner and Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente as well as Epic and eClinicalWorks.
"We are pleased to work with both eClinicalWorks and interested clinical organizations like Entira and HealthEast to further the cause of coordinated care through open, standards based interoperability," said Carl Dvorak, president of Epic, in a news release. "By collaborating together with organizations like HealtheWay and Carequality, we can ensure that where ever a patient receives care, they can securely provide their clinicians direct access to their records without concern that their data might be used for other purposes."
Epic has long been a target of criticism for a lack of interoperability, including last month during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing. A back-and-forth with the CommonWell Health Alliance after the hearing drew media attention when athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush took to Twitter to criticize Epic's prices for data exchange and Cerner issued a statement saying Epic's statements at the hearing were 'a slap in the face to many parties working to advance interoperability." Epic did not respond.