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As the cost of providing health care continues to rise, Applied Materials, BP America, Inc., Intel Corporation, Pitney Bowes, Inc. and Wal-Mart are funding an independent nonprofit institute to develop “Dossia,” a Web-based framework through which U.S. employees, dependents and retirees can maintain lifelong personal health records. Together, the companies will provide this benefit to more than 2.5 million individuals across the United States starting next year.
“Dossia will empower individuals to manage their own health care, improve communications with their doctors, and ensure more complete and accurate information for health care providers than the current fragmented, paper-based system,” said JD Kleinke, chairman and CEO of the Omnimedix Institute, the non-profit organization with headquarters in Portland, Ore. that is developing Dossia. “With Dossia’s personal, private and portable personal health records, individuals will be able to maintain comprehensive, up-to-date histories for themselves and their families.”
The unique Dossia framework gathers health information on behalf of the individual from various sources and stores it within secured databases. Dossia’s open architecture will support multiple personal health applications, allowing users to organize and summarize their information in ways that are most useful to them. Health records will be secure and private, accessible only by the individual or by others to whom they have granted permission. Records also will be portable, enabling individuals to continue using the records even if they change employers, health plans or doctors.
Dossia’s members believe that, as the largest purchasers of health care, they can and should play a role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the health care system. The founding members of Dossia are also united in their belief that increasing health care costs to employers threaten the nation’s competitiveness. With employers paying almost half of all U.S. health care costs, Dossia will be an important component in making the health care system more efficient and effective, eliminating waste and duplication of effort on behalf of consumers and providers.
“The leadership of these companies in offering personal health records is encouraging and I hope more employers will make similar commitments soon. We know that the use of health IT based on recognized standards leads to better health care for patients at lower cost and with less hassle, and I applaud this important step for consumers,” said Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.
There are many different groups and entities offering personal health records, but Dossia provides what is missing today in terms of portability, accessibility and transparency. It is based on the Connecting for Health Common Framework, a set of design and policy standards established by a collaboration of industry stakeholders, including consumer advocacy organizations, physician groups, insurers, technologists and privacy watchdogs.
Connecting for Health is funded by the Markle and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations. The goal of the Common Framework -- and of Dossia as its first real-world deployment -- is to provide a robust, secure and flexible data capture and authentication system through which consumers can aggregate their health information to create one independent, lifelong personal health record.
Dossia enables an individual to develop a personal health record via two means: entering the data themselves and enabling the system to search and securely aggregate their individual health data from various sources. Once Dossia is complete, it will begin drawing information from all available electronic sources within the health care system on behalf of each individual who requests it.
Dossia features stringent privacy and security policies and procedures, including a strong authentication system. Individuals opt-in to the system and then decide what information to share and with whom. No one can see an individual’s information without his or her permission. Additionally, since Dossia is hosted by an independent third party, there is an organizational barrier between the data and outside parties, including employers and health insurers.
Dossia is strongly supported by many organizations within the health care industry including the American Association of Family Physicians as well as consumer groups such as the National Consumers League.
"The use of interoperable Personal Health Records holds tremendous potential to improve population health by making it easier for individuals and families to stay healthy through prevention. People will be able to more conveniently monitor their health, assure that they have appropriate health screening tests, take care of existing health conditions, and share their health information with health professionals to enhance the quality and consistency of health care they receive," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Dossia has the potential to positively impact millions of workers and their families, and it should serve as a call to other employers across the country to help their employees take control of their own personal health records,” said Linda Golodner, National Consumers League president.
All of Dossia’s founding employers are focused on promoting employee health and wellness as well as on increasing employee engagement in managing their care. Dossia is another vital tool to support employee success in wellness activities, as well as health care cost-management.
Dossia will initially be rolled out to the U.S. employees, dependents and retirees of the original five corporations, but will soon be made available to other communities of users and personal health applications developers. Omnimedix will start to deploy Dossia in mid-2007. Dossia continues to recruit additional employers who share the Founders’ goals.
Dossia Founding Members
“Corporate America has gone from ‘AWOL’ to action with the creation of Dossia,” said Intel Chairman Craig Barrett. “The results of this employer collaboration put the consumer in control to make better healthcare choices. A Dossia record is personal, private and portable and gives consumers insight into their lifelong health picture. It’s theirs to utilize with their healthcare provider, whenever or wherever, in a secure and private manner.”
“We believe in creating a ‘culture of health’ at Pitney Bowes, where we partner with employees to provide the information, services, incentives and support people need to maintain a healthy lifestyle. We think Dossia fits neatly into this approach, and will be a powerful new tool in our efforts to have the healthiest workforce possible. In addition, Dossia will help ensure continuity of care, which is increasingly important in a highly mobile society. We look forward to development and deployment of this important initiative,” said Michael J. Critelli, Pitney Bowes, Inc.
"This is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between major employers who are dedicated to solving some of the most pressing health care challenges facing the nation today," said Linda Dillman, Wal-Mart’s Executive Vice President of Risk Management, Benefits and Sustainability. "Wal-Mart and the other founding members are taking an important first step to bring efficiency and transparency to the health care system by empowering consumers to make smarter, informed decisions about their health care."
"Our people are important to the long term success and sustainability of our company. Dossia complements a number of major initiatives underway within BP America to transform human resources processes" said Bob Malone, chairman and president of BP America. "Dossia will be an important resource for our 84,000 U.S. employees and retirees and will help them to better manage their individual health care needs."
Malone also noted that "We believe that Dossia is an innovative and progressive approach to addressing the rising costs of health care, one of the most challenging issues facing both U.S. companies and our employees."
"We believe Dossia represents the real future of personal medical records management and will be an important benefit we can provide to our employees," said Mike Splinter, president and CEO of Applied Materials. "While chip technology has been used extensively to save lives in medical equipment the record keeping system has been mostly paper-based until now. We think it is time for this to change."
Dossia Allies
“Dossia has the potential to positively impact millions of workers and their families, and it should serve as a call to other employers across the country to help their employees take control of their own personal health records,” said Linda Golodner, National Consumers League president.
“The American Academy of Pediatrics welcomes this important commitment of resources from private sector employers to help make electronic personal health records available to our patients,” said Alan E. Zuckerman, MD, FAAP of the AAP Council on Clinical Information Technology. “We view personal health records as an important strategy to improve quality and efficiency of our healthcare system. We look forward to continuing to provide input on the special requirements for children, and the opportunities to use this tool to improve communication between physicians and patients.”
“The National Association of Manufacturers fully supports this effort to enable employees, their dependents and retirees to maintain lifelong electronic health records,” said NAM President John Engler. “The use of health IT is critical for attaining value driven health care- better quality at affordable costs. The NAM applauds the corporate leaders who are making this possible. In the manufacturing sector, innovative technology streamlines operations resulting in reduced costs, increased efficiency and better quality- all necessary to compete in a global marketplace. Health IT offers the same benefits for health care. As such, the NAM will continue to drive health IT and work toward a better health care system for employees, retirees and the future generation.”
"This effort holds tremendous potential to improve population health by making it easier for individuals and families to stay healthy through prevention. People will be able to more conveniently monitor their health, assure that they have appropriate health screening tests, take care of existing health conditions, and share their health information with health professionals to enhance the quality and consistency of health care they receive," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About Applied Materials, Inc.
(Nasdaq: AMAT) is the global leader in Nanomanufacturing Technology™ solutions with a broad portfolio of innovative equipment, service and software products for the fabrication of semiconductor chips, flat panels, solar photovoltaic cells, flexible electronics and energy efficient glass. At Applied Materials, we apply Nanomanufacturing Technology to improve the way people live.
About BP
BP is one of the world’s largest energy companies, providing its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemical products for everyday items. BP America employs more than 37,000 in the U.S. BP’s family of brands includes Amoco, Aral, ARCO, BP and Castrol.
About Pitney Bowes
Pitney Bowes provides the world’s most comprehensive suite of mailstream software, hardware, services and solutions to help companies manage their flow of mail, documents and packages to improve communication. Pitney Bowes, with $5.6 billion in annual revenue, takes an all-inclusive view of its customers’ operations, helping organizations of all sizes enjoy the competitive advantage that comes from an optimized mailstream. The company’s 86 years of technological leadership have produced many major mailstream innovations, and it is consistently on the Intellectual Property Owners Association’s list of top U.S. patent holders. With approximately 34,000 employees worldwide, Pitney Bowes serves more than 2 million businesses through direct and dealer operations.
About Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates Wal-Mart discount stores, supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and Sam’s Club locations in the United States. The Company operates in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom. The Company’s securities are listed on the New York Stock Exchange and NYSE Arca, formerly the Pacific Stock Exchange, under the symbol WMT.
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