On May 4, 2010, Vice President Joe Biden and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius awarded $220 million of Recovery Act funding to 15 communities through the Beacon Community program. The program seeks to advance a health IT infrastructure that will support the nationwide electronic exchange and use of health information.

Beacon Communities will build on their existing infrastructure of interoperable health IT and standards-based information exchange to advance specific health improvement goals.The Communities will be required to coordinate with the Regional Extension Center Program and State Health Information Exchange Program, including the Health Information Technology Research Center (HITRC), to develop and disseminate best practices for adoption and meaningful use of EHRs and to facilitate national goals for widespread use of health IT. Click here to see a map of the communities.

This directory contains information about each of the Beacon Community Awardees, including: organization, funding amount, primary contact, program description, and website. To update this information, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Last updated September 9, 2010.

Organization: The Greater Cincinnati HealthBridge, Inc. ($13,775,630)
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Primary Contact: Trudi Matthews, Director of Policy and Public Relations, HealthBridge

Program Description: HealthBridge will serve a 16-county area spanning three states surrounding greater Cincinnati. Under the Beacon program, HealthBridge and its partners will use its advanced health information exchange program to develop new quality improvement and care coordination initiatives focusing on patients with pediatric asthma, adult diabetes, and encouraging smoking cessation. For example, not only will physicians and other providers receive more timely and accurate information about when their patients experience a medical complication or are hospitalized, they will have new support from care managers to use this information effectively to intervene early and assist patients in managing their health and avoiding further complications. This program will provide better clinical information and IT "decision support" tools to physicians, health systems, federally qualified health centers, and critical access hospitals. As part of the Beacon program, this health IT community collaboration will also provide patients and their families with timely access to data, knowledge, and tools to make informed decisions and manage their own health and health care.

Organization: The Southeastern Michigan Health Association (SEMHA) ($16,224,370)
Location: Detroit, Michigan
Primary Contact: Gary Petroni, Director, Center for Population Health

Program Description: The SEMHA and its partners in the greater Detroit area will use health IT tools and strategies to prevent and better manage diabetes, which today affects a large percentage of residents of the city of Detroit. This community collaboration will leverage existing and new technologies across health care settings to improve the availability of patient information at the point of care, regardless of where the patient is in the health system. Furthermore, the community will provide practical support to physician practices to help clinicians, nurses, and others make the best use of electronic health data to catch potential health complications before they arise. The city's clinical community will have the capacity to track clinical outcomes with the overarching goal of making long-term, sustainable improvements in the quality and efficiency of diabetes care in Detroit, Hamtramck, Highland Park, Dearborn and Dearborn Heights.

Organization: The Regents of the University of California, San Diego ($15,275,115)
Location: San Diego, CA
Primary Contact: Tom Jackiewicz, Chief Executive Officer, University of California San Diego Health System

Program Description: Expand pre-hospital emergency field care and electronic information transmission to improve outcomes for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, empower patients to engage in their own health management through web portal and cellular telephone technology, and improve continuity of care for veterans and military personnel through the Veterans Affairs/Department of Defense Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record initiative.

Organization: Rocky Mountain Health Maintenance Organization ($11, 878, 279)
Location: Grand Junction, CO
Primary Contact: Patrick Gordon, Director, Government Relations, Rocky Mountain Health Plans

Program Description: Enable robust collection of clinical data from health systems, providers, and hospitals in order to inform practice redesign to improve blood pressure control in patients with diabetes and hypertension, increase smoking cessation counseling, and reduce unnecessary emergency department utilization and hospital re-admissions.

Organization: University of Hawaii at Hilo ($16,091,390)
Location: Hilo, HI
Primary Contact: Karen Pellegrin, Director of Strategic Planning, College of Pharmacy, University of Hawaii at Hilo

Program Description: Implement a region-wide Health Information Exchange and Patient Health Record solution and utilize secure, internet-based care coordination and tele-monitoring tools to increase access to specialty care for patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity in this rural, health-professional shortage area.

Organization: Indiana Health Information Exchange, INC. ($16,008,431)
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Primary Contact: Tom Penno, Chief Operating Officer, Indiana Health Information Exchange, Inc.

Program Description: Expand the country's largest Health Information Exchange to new community providers in order to improve cholesterol and blood sugar control for diabetic patients and reduce preventable re-admissions through telemonitoring of high risk chronic disease patients after hospital discharge.

Organization: Louisiana Public Health Institute ($13,525,434)
Location: New Orleans, LA
Primary Contact: Gaura Nagrath, Chief Information Officer, Louisiana Public Health Institute

Program Description: Reduce racial health disparities and improve control of diabetes and smoking cessation rates by linking technically isolated health systems, providers, and hospitals; and empower patients by increasing their access to Personal Health Records.

Organization: Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems ($12,749,740)
Location: Brewer, ME
Primary Contact: Cathy Bruno, Chief Information Officer, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems

Program Description: Expand community connectivity, including long-term care, primary care and specialist providers, to existing Health Information Exchange and promote the use of telemedicine and patient self-management in order to improve care for elderly patients and individuals needing long-term or home care.

Organization: Mayo Clinic Rochester, d/b/a Mayo Clinic College of Medicine ($12,284,770)
Location: Rochester, MN
Primary Contact: John Noseworthy, MD, President & Chief Executive Officer, Mayo Clinic

Program Description: Enhance patient management and, reduce costs associated with hospitalization and emergency services for patients with diabetes and childhood asthma and address reduce health disparities for underserved populations and rural communities.

Organization: Delta Health Alliance, Inc. ($14,666,156)
Location: Stoneville, MS
Primary Contact: Karen Fox, MD, President & Chief Executive Officer, Delta Health Alliance, Inc.

Program Description: Focus on achieving improvements for diabetic patients by electronically linking isolated systems and practices for care management, medication therapy management and patient education.

Organization: Western New York Clinical Information Exchange, Inc. ($16,092,485)
Location: Buffalo, NY
Primary Contact: Dan Porreca, Executive Director, HEALTHeLINK - The Clinical Information Exchange for Western New York

Program Description: Utilize clinical decision support tools such as registries and point-of-care alerts and reminders and innovative telemedicine solutions to improve primary and specialty care for diabetic patients, decrease preventable emergency room visits, hospitalizations and re-admissions for patients with diabetes and congestive heart failure or pneumonia, and improve immunization rates among diabetic patients.

Organization: Southern Piedmont Community Care Plan, Inc. ($15,907,622)
Location: Concord, NC
Primary Contact: Gloria Conyers-Mutts, RN, Southern Piedmont Community Care Plan, Inc.

Program Description: Improve care coordination for patients with diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and asthma by engaging patients and providers in bidirectional data sharing through a Health Record Bank, empowering patients and family members to participate in self-management through patient portals, and expanding access to care managers to facilitate post-discharge planning.

Organization: Community Services Council of Tulsa ($12,043,948)
Location: Tulsa, OK
Primary Contact: Jill Willey, President & Chief Executive Officer, Community Services Council of Tulsa

Program Description: Leverage broad community partnerships with hospitals, providers, payers, and government agencies to expand a community-wide care coordination system, which will increase appropriate referrals for cancer screenings, decrease unnecessary specialist visits and (with telemedicine) increase access to care for patients with diabetes.

Organization: Geisinger Clinic ($16,069,110)
Location: Danville, PA
Primary Contact: James Walker, Chief Health Information Officer, Geisinger Health System

Program Description: Enhance care for patients with pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure by creating a community-wide medical home, promoting Health Information Exchange and extending Geisinger's proven model for practice redesign to independent healthcare organizations throughout region.

Organization: Rhode Island Quality Institute ($15,914,787)
Location: Providence, RI
Primary Contact: Laura Adams, President and CEO, Rhode Island Quality Institute

Program Description: Improve the management of patients with diabetes through several health IT initiatives to support Rhode Island's transition to the Patient Centered Medical Home model and adapt infrastructure proven to improve childhood immunizations in order to achieve improvements in adult immunization rates.

Organization: HealthInsight ($15,790,181)
Location: Salt Lake City, UT
Primary Contact: Sharon Donnelly, MS, Vice President of Development, HealthInsight

Improve Diabetes management performance measures by increasing availability, accuracy and transparency of quality reporting, leverage Intermountain Healthcare's strategies to reduce health systems costs throughout the region, and improve public health reporting.

Organization: Inland Northwest Health Services ($15,702,479)
Location: Spokane, WA
Primary Contact: Jac Davies, Project Director, Inland Northwest Health Services

Focus on increasing preventive services for diabetic patients in rural areas by extending Health Information Exchange and establishing anchor institutions in close proximity to remote clinics that will promulgate successes in health IT supported care coordination.

Map of Beacon Communities

For more information, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .