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WASHINGTON – The American Academy of Family Physicians and e-prescribing network Surescripts have introduced a new messaging system to provide doctors across the country with a way to securely communicate with each other.
The service, called AAFP Physicians Direct, is built on the Surescripts Network for Clinical Interoperability and is part of a larger program to help physicians share information such as referrals, patient summaries, discharge summaries and lab results when providing patient care.
The cost to use the network will be $15 per physician per month, officials said.
AAFP physicians will be able to connect to the Surescripts network and share information securely through the new AAFP Physicians Direct Web portal or a choice of electronic health record systems.
Amazing Charts, e-MDs and SOAPware announced last month they would connect their EHR systems to the Surescripts network and collaborate in the Physicians Direct program.
“Great handoffs are important and require excellent communication,” said S. Hughes Melton, MD, the AAFP’s 2011 Family Physician of the Year. This network “will make it much more likely that clinical information will pass cleanly and confidentially from one hand to the next – from A to B.”
All it requires, said Melton, is an Internet connection. If a doctor is sent a message that is not on the network, he or she will be notified and will be able to view the message free of charge, said Harry Totonis, president and CEO of Surescripts.
“AAFP Physicians Direct is a health IT innovation that will help providers achieve meaningful use and support continuity of care, which will reduce costs and medical errors,” said Farzad Mostashari, MD, the deputy national coordinator for programs and policy at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.
AAFP Physicians Direct will support all federal and state policies and standards for health information exchange, including privacy and security standards (such as HIPAA and state law), as well as technology interoperability standards and message types such as HL7, CCR and CCD, officials said.
“This is a tool without upfront investment that providers can use to meet meaningful use requirements,” said Glen Stream, MD, president-elect of the AAFP.
Cris Ross, executive vice president of Surescripts, said Surescripts expects to test the network in March, and by the first week of April should be able to provide signups on the AAFP website. The AAFP and Surescripts expect the system to be live in the second quarter of 2011, with a target of May, Ross said.
Phase 2 of the network will focus on allowing docs to message patients their clinical information via personal health records platforms, Ross added.
