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Definitions/Terminology

Community eMPI – Community enterprise Master Patient Index: The Certify community eMPI is unlike any other in the industry. It identifies the patient at all points of service, and automatically builds as users exchange clinical data across the network. Because the community eMPI does not require participants to load patient demographics into a centralized database, physician resistance is eliminated, and participants are allowed to keep their patient demographics secure behind their firewall.

HealthDock^®: an intelligent edge server that receives in-bound clinical information from multiple sources and pushes the data to physicians as soon as it is available in the hospital’s information system (HIS). The Certify HealthDock^® delivers clinical information directly to the physician’s electronic medical record for immediate access, or via encrypted PDF files for fully or partially paper-based practices. The HealthDock^® allows physicians to place orders for hospital services, and is designed for all physician practices – from large multispecialty clinics with hundreds of doctors to the single-physician practice.

Gateway: enables hospital organizations to exchange all forms of clinical information with their physicians and other providers. The Certify Gateway interacts with any HIS and doesn’t require an interface engine or additional code to incorporate. When the Certify Gateway receives a request from the HIS, data is transformed and routed to the appropriate physician office-based HealthDock^® edge server. In concert with Certify HealthDock^®, the Gateway creates a bi-directional connection with the hospital’s referring physicians while supporting the physician offices’ existing workflows and IT investments. Certify’s Gateway enhances physician loyalty and makes it easier for physicians to work the hospital organization.

Semantic Interoperability: the ability of computer systems to communicate information and have that information properly interpreted by the receiving system in the same sense as intended by the transmitting system. Semantic Interoperability is also used in a more general sense as the ability of any communicating entities (not only computers) to share unambiguous meaning.

Last Mile: the final leg of delivering connectivity from a communications provider to a customer. Although the term is typically used when describing delivering wired systems such as telephone, cable or fiber lines to the customer, the “last mile” in healthcare is associated with connecting providers with their health systems and community HIEs.

Hybrid Architecture: sets the foundation to easily scale an organization’s health information exchange. As the name suggests, the hybrid approach is a combination of the two architecture types in which various data transactions occur based on a decentralized or centralized method.

HL7 – Health Level Seven: one of several American National Standards Institute (ANSI)-accredited Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs) operating in the healthcare arena. HL7 provides standards for interoperability that improve care delivery, optimize workflow, reduce ambiguity and enhance knowledge transfer among healthcare providers, government agencies, the vendor community, fellow SDOs and patients.

ARRA: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, commonly referred to as the Stimulus or The Recovery Act, is an economic stimulus package enacted by the United States Congress in February 2009.

HITECH: HITECH is the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health act that was included in ARRA. The HITECH Act allocates $19 billion to encourage the healthcare industry to adopt information technology.

Meaningful Use: The primary goal of Meaningful Use is to improve the US healthcare system by improving quality and efficiency of care, and patient safety. To receive the financial incentives provided by HITECH, eligible professionals, hospitals, and Critical Access Hospitals must demonstrate “Meaningful Use” of the certified electronic health records.