CHICAGO - Collaborating to improve the delivery of healthcare, the Continua Health Alliance (Continua) and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise International (IHE) have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) to enable and promote interoperability of healthcare devices. Both Continua and IHE recognize the need for and benefit of connecting medical and patient care devices with the healthcare system, a synergy that supports the joint educational and marketing efforts between the organizations.

"Continua Health Alliance is dedicated to enabling a marketplace of connected, personal health solutions to empower consumers and patients to take control of their personal health," said David Whitlinger, Continua Health Alliance president. "We're excited to work with IHE to help make this connectivity at the enterprise level a reality so patients can stay connected to their healthcare providers."

New audiences: The agreement also helps both Continua and IHE expand their outreach to new audiences. Continua focuses on the personal telehealth industry with initial emphasis on fitness, managing chronic disease and aging independently. Within these groups are healthcare providers, insurance companies and government organizations, groups that IHE reaches through its programming and membership.

Continua complements the broad clinical-based IHE portfolio by addressing the consumer-directed personal health segment. Both organizations will be introduced to new constituencies who may not be familiar with their healthcare programs. Collaborative programs between the two organizations may include:

-Joint participation in the Interoperability Showcase at HIMSS09
-Webinars conducted by IHE and Continua for new audiences
-Development of educational materials on the value of interoperability

Those constituencies for Continua include patients, caregivers, and healthcare and fitness providers to help them better understand and address their ongoing health and wellness needs. With the goal to establish interoperability guidelines and its certification program, the organization focuses on ways to improve health and well being through every stage of life.

Through its framework that facilitates the exchange of digital patient health information, IHE improves the way computer systems in healthcare share information. In less than a decade, IHE has become a global organization for healthcare professionals and industry, with IHE specifications now being used in North America, Asia and Europe.

"IHE welcomes this opportunity to collaborate with Continua to promote the need for interoperable devices that seamlessly and accurately capture patient and consumer data," said Joyce Sensmeier, RN, HIMSS vice president, informatics. HIMSS, in partnership with the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), introduced the IHE initiative in 1998. Ms. Sensmeier continues as the IHE contact for HIMSS. "The healthcare industry is advancing toward the adoption of electronic medical records and other health IT systems, and automatically capturing and transporting data through devices will streamline workflow and improve the quality and efficiency of care delivery and enhance consumer health."

About Continua: The Continua Health Alliance is a collaborative industry organization dedicated to bringing together standards and diverse technology to create new health and wellness solutions. The Continua Health Alliance envisions a market place of interoperable devices that enable better care, empower consumers and connect healthcare providers to their patients. Continua focuses on three key categories: Health and Fitness, Chronic Disease Management, Aging Independently and promotes better management of health and wellness at every stage of life.

About IHE: IHE is a global initiative, now in its tenth year that creates the framework for passing vital health information seamlessly- from application to application, system to system, and setting to setting - across multiple healthcare enterprises. IHE brings together health information technology stakeholders to implement standards for communicating patient information efficiently throughout and among healthcare enterprises by developing a framework of interoperability. Because of its proven process of collaboration, demonstration and real world implementation of interoperable solutions, IHE is in a unique position to significantly accelerate the process for defining, testing, and implementing standards-based interoperability among electronic health record systems.

About HIMSS: The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is the healthcare industry's membership organization exclusively focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of healthcare information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of healthcare. Founded in 1961 with offices in Chicago, Washington D.C., Brussels, and other locations across the United States and Europe, HIMSS represents more than 20,000 individual members and over 350 corporate members that collectively represent organizations employing millions of people. HIMSS frames and leads healthcare public policy and industry practices through its advocacy, educational and professional development initiatives designed to promote information and management systems' contributions to ensuring quality patient care.