The American Medical Association (AMA) announced that Michigan physicians are the U.S.'s first to benefit through increased access to health information technologies (HIT) via a new collaboration between AMA and the Michigan State Medical Society (MSMS) with Compuware's Covisint. The MSMS is a professional association of over than 15,000 physicians in Michigan. According to a press release on the AMA's website, the collaboration is building upon on "MSMS Connect" and comes just days after the AMA has announced an agreement with Covisint to develop an AMA Web-based portal.

The AMA says the collaboration will increase the number of products and services available to Michigan physicians. MSMS Connect currently has a portfolio of services for improving patient care, facilitating efficient medical practice and easing the adoption of HIT, a hot health care topic this year. The AMA says that through its AMA collaboration, later this year MSMS members will be able to access even more secure tools and information, supporting improved patient care and efficiency.

"Our collaboration with the AMA is very exciting for Michigan physicians because we are now able to pool our efforts to deliver a broader range of resources to help physicians in their practices," said Gregory J. Forzley, MD, chair of MSMS board of directors and Medical Director of Informatics at Saint Mary's Health Care in Grand Rapids, MI. "Physicians can select the products and services they need to help increase their efficiency, quality of care and patient safety through one online portal."

The current available offerings include the up-to-date tools and information for such activities as ePrescribing, electronic health records, and practice and revenue management. The AMA says this will provide very practical and tangible help to practicing physicians. The new physician-friendly portal will allow for personalized content, search capabilities and learning and networking opportunities. The portal has additional benefit in not needing significant technological expertise to use.

"Through this collaboration with MSMS, Michigan physicians will provide feedback that will help improve the program for physicians nationwide," said AMA Board Chair Joseph M. Heyman, MD. "By working together, we can develop a better portal with the products and services to help simplify physicians' day-to-day routines so they can focus on what they do best - caring for patients." The AMA platform will be launched nationally in 2010.

Adapted from a press release by the AMA.

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