PSI Brings its Pioneering Efforts ...( PLANO Texas Sept. 20 /- After six...),Health

PLANO, Texas, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- After six years of pioneering leadership in national healthcare clinical information exchange, the Patient Safety Institute (PSI) has chosen to close its doors. The need is there and we hope that others will find and fund the opportunity to carry PSI's cutting-edge vision forward in new ways.

In its most important achievement, PSI demonstrated:

* the feasibility of community-wide access to available electronic

clinical information at the point of care for each patient,

* the capability of this model to be nationally scalable, and

* the means to build and operate the network on a self-funded basis.

PSI used lessons learned from Visa's earlier success in establishing a similar collaborative national information exchange network for secure financial transactions. PSI's model is now being emulated in many areas of health care by both government and industry entities.

PSI's other successes included:

* Formation of a national, third-party, multi-sectored, nonprofit

governance model that created the trust needed for multiple interests

to join together

* Demonstration (in Seattle) of a working healthcare clinical information

exchange that has:

- proven successful while in continuous operation over five years,

- commanded strong support and endorsements from hospital, physician

and consumer users, and

- been validated by independent experts to be nationally scalable.

* Articulation and implementation of strong principles for consumer

participation (including unwavering support for opt-in patient consent)

* Development of a self-funding model for the national electronic

healthcare information exchange (EHIX) network that has:

- been validated in concept by experts,

- resulted in the first and subsequent foundational work on<
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