DENVER, Colo. – April 8, 2013 – CORHIO, the Colorado Regional Health Information Organization, announced today that it has partnered with 9Health Fair to enable authorized physicians and medical professionals to electronically access their patients’ health fair test results.

Providers who participate in the CORHIO health information exchange (HIE), and set up to receive data, will access lab results through CORHIO’s secure, web-based network, PatientCare 360®.

Quest Diagnostics, the world’s leading provider of diagnostic information services, is the official medical lab of the 9Health Fair, and will provide the clinical testing services through its clinical laboratory in Denver, CO. Lab work will be processed and the data will be made available through the CORHIO HIE. 9Health Fair does not ask patients to provide the name of their physician(s) at registration, so the lab results will not automatically route to provider’s electronic health record (if they have that type of connection to CORHIO). Instead, lab results will be accessible through the Community Health Record feature inside the PatientCare 360® software tool. Patients will have to notify their physicians that they attended the 9Health Fair and to look for the results in the CORHIO HIE.

During the pilot phase of the connection, there will be a potential delay of several months for lab results to be available in the HIE. For future 9Health Fairs, lab information will be available almost instantly after the results are processed.

“9Health Fair is committed to providing excellent tools and systems to help our participants own their health,” James H. Goddard, President of 9Health Fair said. “We have always encouraged people to take their results to their health care professional. Now this partnership with CORHIO will make it even easier for people to share their results with their provider.”

More than 75,000 people are expected to attend this spring’s 9Health Fair at 140 locations across the state. Colorado’s largest volunteer-driven, non-profit health fair program, 9Health Fair provides free and low-cost tests, including blood chemistry, body mass index, blood pressure and blood sugar.

“Before 9Health Fair’s connection to CORHIO, test results were available to fair participants themselves, but not directly to physicians,” says Larry Wolk, MD, chief executive officer at CORHIO. “9Health Fair participants previously had to bring their reports to their medical professional. Now, with results available through the health information exchange, physicians will be brought into the loop faster and will be able to more quickly react to their patients’ results.”

“Having participant lab results on the CORHIO HIE will be a great step forward for both my office and our patients,” says Dr. Michael Archer of Complete Family Medicine. “It means we’ll be able to quickly access their information, get them into the office sooner if something has been detected or put their mind at ease if everything looks great. This is a win-win situation for everyone.”

About CORHIO
CORHIO is dedicated to improving health care quality for all Coloradans through health information exchange (HIE). As the state-designated entity for HIE, CORHIO collaborates with health care stakeholders including physicians, hospitals, clinics, public health, long-term care, laboratories, health plans and patients to improve care collaboration through secure systems and processes for sharing clinical information. CORHIO is a not-for-profit supported in large part by grants, including awards from the Colorado Health Foundation and from federal ARRA HITECH funds. CORHIO’s technical infrastructure is built on industry-leading HIE technology developed and maintained by Medicity. For more information about CORHIO, please visit www.corhio.org.

About 9Health Fair
9Health Fair is Colorado’s largest non-profit, volunteer-driven health fair program that promotes health awareness and encourages individuals to assume responsibility for their own health. Created by a National Institutes of Health project and 9NEWS, 9Health Fair’s free and low-cost health screenings and education program has earned unique endorsements from the Colorado Medical Society, the Colorado Nurses Association and the Colorado Hospital Association. Since 1980, 9Health Fair has impacted 1.7 million lives. As an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, 9Health Fair is proud of its financial management performance, keeping its administration and fundraising expense under 17 percent of its total budget, well under the industry average of 20-25 percent. Special thanks to The Colorado National Guard for its continued 9Health Fair support through delivering supplies to volunteers and sites around the state.
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