MELE launches electronic health record studyFor Immediate Release - September 22, 2006
Honolulu, HI — MELE Associates has launched a collaborative research study to implement open source electronic health records (EHR) in rural healthcare facilities on the island of Kauai in Hawai`i.
MELE is partnering with the Hawai`i Health Systems Corporation (HHSC), University of Hawai’i Telecommunications and Information Policy Group, Pacific Health Research Institute, and local IT companies to install and integrate an open source EHR system in HHSC’s West Kauai Medical Center, Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital, and clinics in Eleele, Kalaheo, and Waimea.
The 18-month research study will identify the individual and organizational-level facilitators and barriers to the implementation of an open source electronic health record system in rural healthcare facilities. The effort is being funded by the Department of Defense through the Telemedicine and Advanced Technologies Research Center (TATRC). The EHR initiative will serve as a test-bed for Hawai`i’s 12 state hospital system.
The group will deploy the open source version of VistA (Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture). Developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, VistA is an enterprise-wide health information system made available to the public through the Freedom of Information Act. Described as one of the best healthcare information systems in the nation by the Institute of Medicine, VistA is used throughout the Veterans Health Administration as a patient care management system at more than 1,300 VHA facilities including 160 medical centers.
MELE helped to pioneer the development of the open-source EHR that will be deployed in the study while serving as program manager for the Pacific Telehealth & Technology Hui, a DoD/VA joint venture headquartered at Tripler Army Medical Center. MELE implemented this technology at the LBJ Tropical Medical Center, a rural, 160-bed hospital and outpatient clinic in American Samoa, and has successfully deployed and operated the open source version of VistA at three clinic sites on Oahu using an application service provider model.
Electronic health records systems improve patient care and lower healthcare costs. The technology transfer of the open-source, Linux-based version of the VA’s VistA application will enable non-VA hospitals and clinics in under-served, rural areas of the Pacific region to implement a healthcare information system free of licensing costs.
MELE Health Information Systems provides information technology products and services for healthcare organizations and is a division of MELE Associates, Inc., a privately held technology company headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. MELE Associates provides state-of-the-art information technology business solutions to a wide range of federal clients across the United States and in the Pacific Rim and Africa. In addition to Rockville, MELE Associates has offices in Honolulu, Hawaii, Washington DC; Albuquerque, NM; San Antonio, TX; and Mechanicsburg, PA.
The Pacific Telehealth & Technology Hui was formed in 1999 with the encouragement and support of U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye. A subsidiary of the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) under the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, the Hui facilitates interdisciplinary research partnerships with government, academia and industry to advance the development of emerging technologies and improve health care for beneficiaries in the Pacific region.
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