April 9, 2009 - A fundamental issue facing healthcare worldwide is tying fragmented information and data silos together to increase intelligence, and Initiate Interoperable Health solutions showcased its vendor-neutral “middleware” to bridge disparate data during HIMSS 2009 in Chicago this week.
The company says it can help connect multiple PACS silos that do not interoperate by supplying a software layer above these silos to extract data and images, which can be shared enterprise-wide.
The software can be used to achieve a system-wide view of patient data, regardless of the use of several data systems from different departments and vendors. It can provide a single source for patient demographic information including contact, payer source and primary care physician for use by clinical and administrative information systems. Initiate also can help pave the way to integrate with regional health information organizations (RHIOs).
An example of how Initiate helped customers’ processes includes a large integrated delivery system that had a 3 percent error rate when trying to post ECG information to the correct patient file. Initiate’s solutions were used to create a master patient index that virtually eliminated errors during the critical data exchange process. Another institution was unable to effectively comply with Joint Commission standards for tracking provider privileges and credentialing. Initiate’s technology now provides a single, reliable view of information on 63,000 providers affiliated with the facility. A healthcare system’s nursing staff was wasting hours hunting for information to prepare patients for the OR. Initiate provided a foundation for an interoperable platform that has delivered an 82 percent reduction in the time it takes OR nurses to gather patient information, and a 50 percent increase in the number of patients fully prepped on schedule.
Initiate Interoperable Health supports increased productivity by addressing data quality issues like duplicate records and the costs associated with redundant testing, lost referrals and missing clinical results. Clinicians can spend more time with patients and less time hunting and gathering information about a patient.
For more information: visit www.InitiateSystems.com
May 21, 2025 
