Established: 1989 

Best Advice to New HIE:   Engage physician organizations early; begin with one or two hospitals; pick an easy application with value for physicians to use (e.g. clinical messaging).

The Taconic Health Information Network and Community (THINC) is a multi-stakeholder, community-wide data exchange among community physicians, hospitals, reference laboratories, pharmacies, payers, employers, and consumers.

Clinical, insurance, administrative, and demographic information for more than 600,000 patients is available on a secured Internet infrastructure incorporating standards (HL-7, LOINC, ICD-9/10) for data exchange through THINC. Unique to THINC is the local, ongoing support provided by MedAllies, which provides training and support to community clinicians and their office staff to drive adoption.

With the support of the Foundation for eHealth Initiative, the THINC initiative will complete the current community-wide data exchange in the Hudson Valley region of New York State by obtaining full participation from the remaining community hospitals and reference laboratories. The completion of the data exchange, in conjunction with support and training provided by MedAllies, will drive adoption of the system by community physicians. THINC will also demonstrate a financial model that supports sustainability of the initiative. In addition, THINC will obtain participation of health insurers that will offer financial incentives (pay-for-performance) to community physicians for adoption of additional technology, leading to an Electronic Medical Record (EMR).

Among the THINC initiative's significant accomplishment are:  1. Working with competing hospitals and laboratories  2. Developing interoperability between competing vendor applications  3. Aligning incentives so that at risk entities (health plans and employers) partially underwrite the physician costs for information technology systems.

Partnering Organizations:  

Benedictine Hospital 
The Kingston Hospital
St. Francis Hospital
Vassar Brothers Medical Center
Laboratory Corporation of America

For more information contact:

A. John Blair, III, MD
845-897-6359
jblair@taconicipa.com

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