June 5, 2007

Former Governor Jim Geringer Named Voting Member of State Alliance for e-Health

Panel is Studying Ways to Improve Health Information Technology in the United States

Redlands, California—ESRI announces that Jim Geringer is participating in the State Alliance for e-Health, which Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen and Vermont governor Jim Douglas are co-chairing. The State Alliance is tasked with developing real-world solutions for state-level healthcare challenges through electronic health information exchange. Former Wyoming governor Jim Geringer, who now serves as ESRI's director of public policy, will be a voting member of the alliance. The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices is supporting the work of the State Alliance for e-Health and its task forces, along with partners such as the National Conference of State Legislators and National Association of Attorneys General.

The alliance provides a national forum for state-level stakeholders to develop workable solutions and model practices, remove state-level barriers to widespread adoption of health information technology, and encourage interoperable health information exchange between and among states and private providers. While the dominant issue for state governments is the cost and management of Medicaid, the alliance will consider the full range of health and medical care issues including public, private, and personal health information exchange.

"Having been legislator, governor, private employer, parent, and patient, I know firsthand the importance of quality, affordable, and accessible health care," says Geringer. "I also know the frustrations we each have with the ever-increasing cost, complications, and impersonal approaches typical in both the public and private sectors. With the information technologies available to us today, we can speed the transformation of health care services to improve patient safety and quality of care."

The alliance is a 12-member voting board that includes sitting and former governors, legislators, attorneys general, and insurance commissioners along with advisory members who represent state health directors, medical schools, consumer protection, state CIO's, and private employers. The voting and nonvoting members will guide the work of the alliance and provide oversight to several task forces including

• Health Information Confidentiality (HIC) Task Force that will address privacy and security issues
• Practice of Medicine (POM) Task Force that will review state law practice-of-medicine barriers to health information exchange, licensure laws that hinder telemedicine, and recovery efforts from major disasters
• State-Level Health Information Organization (SHIO) Task Force that will analyze governance and financial sustainability models for health information exchange and the technologies needed to implement them successfully

ESRI is a Corporate Fellow of NGA and will also participate in the meetings as part of its public forum to assist in

• The national discussion regarding how policies will impact state, public, and private agencies
• Guiding the alliance to ensure participation by experts from many different sectors of the IT community
• Ensuring the development of enterprise approaches to applications, standards, and successful data exchanges that are critical to the wider use of innovative technologies within health care management and service delivery

"Assuring that state-level health data exchanges contain accurate administrative and clinical information is one of the greatest challenges health data exchanges will face," says Bill Davenhall, global manager for health and human services solutions at ESRI. "I am delighted that we can make a contribution to the deliberations of the task forces."

For more information on the State Alliance for e-Health, visit www.nga.org/center/ehealth or contact Bill Davenhall, manager, Health and Human Services Industry Solutions, ESRI, Redlands, California, at bdavenhall@esri.com or 909-793-2853, extension 1714.

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ESRI GIS for Health
ESRI software is also used by health organizations throughout the world including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. In addition, more than 80 national health ministries, thousands of health and environmental scientists, and hundreds of hospitals use ESRI GIS tools every day.

Press Information:
Emily Vines, ESRI
Tel.: 909-793-2853, extension 1-3571
E-mail (press only): press@esri.com
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