Janine Akers, CEO of ScanSTAT Technologies is amongst the newest class of appointed CareQuality Advisory Council Members to serve a two-year term. CareQuality, an initiative of The Sequoia Project, is a public-private, multi-stakeholder collaborative that has come together to meet the challenge of cohesive health data exchange. Its community, drawn from all parts of the healthcare ecosystem, uses a consensus-based process to enable seamless connectivity across all participating networks. Akers and her fellow council members will play a vital role in guiding the advancement of interoperability across the United States.
As Akers looks ahead at her advisory role, she is excited about the challenge. “I am thrilled at the opportunity to be directly involved with spearheading further interoperability in our industry. Much like the creation of the interstate highway system nearly 70 years ago, my fellow council members and I will influence building our health information exchange network and ensuring it best serves healthcare providers and patients alike.” Janine knows the gravity of her appointment. “This is a big deal to everyone who is, or will be at some point, a patient in this country. Ensuring that healthcare providers have complete and timely access to a patient’s health record, regardless of what EHR they use, will help to drive down healthcare costs and, most importantly, save lives.”
The news of Akers’ appointment comes as CareQuality and CommonWell Health Alliance announce an agreement on connectivity and collaboration to advance interoperability. As Akers’ receives word of this new collaboration, she shares with enthusiasm, “This is a really big deal in the world of interoperability. It’s like MasterCard and Visa joining forces; we’ll see great strides forward from this collaboration.”
In 2012, The Sequoia Project was chartered as a non-profit 501(c)(3) to advance the implementation of secure, interoperable nationwide health information exchange. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, transitioned management of its eHealth Exchange to The Sequoia Project for maintenance. Since 2012, the Exchange has grown to become the largest health information exchange network in the country. In 2014, it began to support additional interoperability initiatives beginning with Carequality.