In a new step to accelerate the application of electronic health records, Verizon Business has launched a new information 
technology system that enables the digital sharing of patients' medical information.The new Verizon Medical Data Exchange platform was launched at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society annual conference at Atlanta. It provides a way for medical transcriptionists to share patients' information containing details about healthcare and treatment with doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers.
Verizon Medical Data Exchange aims to close the gap caused by the lack of available platforms which made it difficult to share patients' medical information which considered being the base of electronic health records. Based on an agreement back in November, the platform was created by Verizon Business for the Medical Transcription Service Consortium. The consortium members are currently using the platform. It is planned that by August, more than 350,000 physicians, 2,700 clinics and about 2,500 hospitals will be using the platform when the Medical Data Exchange is expected to be in use by all of the consortium's members.
The Medical Transcription Industry Association mentioned that its members are creating and archiving about 60 % of more than 1.2 B. clinical notes produced yearly in the United States. Nearly 25 % of these records are shared currently between healthcare members, including physicians, hospitals and insurance companies.
Peter Tippett, vice president, security solutions and enterprise innovation for Verizon Business said "Pervasive sharing of patient information can save lives, but complex challenges have stood in the way of health IT solutions," he added " The Verizon Medical Data Exchange provides means to accelerate the sharing of a wide range of digital health information between physicians and healthcare organizations. Digital record sharing among the entire health information ecosystem can help speeding patient diagnosis while enabling health care organizations to operate more efficiently and cost-effectively,"Meeting the Nationwide Health Information Network requirements, the Verizon Medical Data Exchange works to deliver a platform that enables medical transcription companies to control their current IT systems and workflows. The Nationwide Health Information Network requirements are a collection of standards, protocols, and specifications placed to improve the development of a national infrastructure to support the secure exchange of health and medical information through the Internet.
"We just started rolling out the Verizon Medical Data Exchange to our clients, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive," said Robin Daigh, vice president – marketing and business development, MD-IT. "Physicians appreciate the ease with which they can share clinical documents and access patient records online. Office staffs are already eliminating hours of administrative time otherwise spent printing, faxing, scanning and filing documents." he added.
The Verizon Medical Data Exchange verifies the identities of senders and recipients automatically by using a central directory so that patients' medical information can be exchanged safely only by authorized users. Identity verification is one of several security measures applied to help ensuring that IT systems and controls are meeting the requirements of the Medical Transcription Service Consortium."The Verizon Medical Data Exchange platform is exactly the kind of practical and secure solution the healthcare industry needs to just not reduce costs but improve overall efficiencies," said Amy Larsen DeCarlo, principal analyst – managed IT services, Current Analysis. "The exchange provides a nationally available platform that will help accelerate the adoption of electronic health records and scale to meet future data sharing requirements across the health care ecosystem."
