May 31, 2006

LANSING – The Michigan Departments of Community Health and Information Technology have been selected to participate in a health information security and privacy collaborative with the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) to study security issues related to creating a statewide health information network, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm announced today.

“Creating a statewide health information exchange is an intricate process, especially when it is balanced with current health care privacy requirements,” said Janet Olszewski, Director of the Michigan Department of Community Health. “It is our hope that this collaborative will allow Michigan to concretely examine privacy issues, security policies, and business practices relevant to electronic health in order to create a 21st century health care system in Michigan.”

Promoting the use of health information technology as a means to improve health care quality and to ultimately reduce health care costs is a top priority for Governor Granholm and is part of the Governor’s plan to revolutionize Michigan’s healthcare system. This award will be used to support the on-going work of Governor Granholm’s statewide Michigan Health Information Network (MiHIN) initiative to foster an environment where private, secure, efficient and effective health information technologies can be used to benefit all of Michigan’s citizens.

“This contract award – worth $350,000 to the state of Michigan – is a critical step toward achieving Governor Granholm’s vision for Michigan health care,” said Teri Takai, Director of the Michigan Department of Information Technology. “Enabling our state’s health information exchange will improve the quality and accuracy of medical diagnoses, treatments, and prescriptions, while significantly reducing health care costs.”

The RTI collaborative, in partnership with the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices will form the Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration (HISPC), consists of a multidisciplinary team of experts in privacy and security law and in health care management as well as several state and territorial governments.

Together, this team will implement a process that addresses organization-level business policies and state laws that affect privacy and security practices that may pose challenges to interoperable health information exchange. The contract will begin on May 24, 2006 and end on April 30, 2007. For more information or to get involved in the MiHIN please visit http://www.mihin.org