eHealth Initiative Strategy

OUR MISSION
The eHealth Initiative and its Foundation (eHI) are Washington D.C.-based, independent, non-profit affiliated organizations whose missions are the same: to drive improvements in the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare through information and information technology.

OUR MEMBERS
The eHealth Initiative represents the multiple and diverse stakeholders in healthcare who are improving health and healthcare through information and information technology, including clinicians, consumer and patient groups, employers and healthcare purchasers, health plans, health information technology (HIT) suppliers, hospitals and other providers, laboratories, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, pharmacies, public health agencies, quality improvement organizations, standards groups, and state, regional and community-based organizations. In 2005, eHI launched the eHI Connecting Communities Membership, a rapidly growing coalition of leaders representing more than 200 state, regional and community-based initiatives focused on improving health and healthcare through HIT and health information exchange.

WHAT WE DO
eHI engages the multiple stakeholders in healthcare both at the national level, and within states and communities across the country, to develop and drive the implementation of a common set of principles, policies and best practices for mobilizing information electronically to improve health and healthcare, in a way that is responsible, sustainable, responsive to each stakeholder’s needs, and which builds and maintains the public’s trust.

OUR FOCUS
eHI focuses on the following areas to support its mission:

• Monitoring, assessing and reporting out on changes in the policy environment: Congress, Administration, the States, and the private sector.
• Developing multi-stakeholder consensus on a shared vision, principles, strategies and actions for improving health and healthcare through information and information technology.The results of eHI’s six-month long effort involving nearly 200 organizations in every sector of health care culminated in the release of the eHealth Initiative Blueprint: From Consensus to Common Action.
• Developing and disseminating tools and resources to increase support state and local leaders navigate the organizational, technical, legal and financial aspects of health information exchange, with a particular focus on value and sustainability.
• Providing "hands on help" and technical assistance to stakeholders at the national, state and local levels to support improvements in health and healthcare through information and information technology.
• Launching learning laboratories in the field to test and evaluate using health information exchange for use cases that provide value such as those related to drug safety surveillance, consumer access to healthcare information, and quality improvement/performance measurement
• Expanding our coalition to extend our reach and strengthen our efforts to achieve our mission, which is to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare through information and information technology.