Free tool links patient portals and EHRs to consumer health information

The
National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest medical library and a
component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has formally
launched MedlinePlus Connect. This free service allows health
organizations and health information technology (HIT) providers to link
patient portals and electronic health record (EHR) systems to MedlinePlus.gov,
a trusted source of authoritative, up-to-date health information for
patients, families and health care providers. MedlinePlus brings
together information from NIH, other federal agencies, and reputable
health information providers. MedlinePlus covers a wide range of health
conditions and wellness issues, and includes key resources to inform
patients about their health.

Patients using portals or EHRs that
have implemented MedlinePlus Connect can access easy-to-understand
health information on MedlinePlus that is directly related to their
diagnoses, medications, and lab tests. “MedlinePlus Connect is the
latest result of NLM’s long standing commitment to using technology and
standards to bring high quality information to patients and clinicians
when and where they need it,” noted NLM Director Donald A.B. Lindberg,
M.D.

To use MedlinePlus Connect, an organization should contact
their EHR vendor or work with their in-house technical staff to follow
the instructions in the technical documentation. Full details, including an online demonstration, are available at http://medlineplus.gov/connect.
MedlinePlus Connect accepts the coding standards already in the
organization’s system, such as ICD-9-CM, SNOMED CT CORE Problem List
Subset, RxNorm, NDC, and LOINC. MedlinePlus Connect only needs to be set
up once and NLM regularly maintains the vocabulary mappings and topic
links.

Since MedlinePlus Connect helps EHRs identify
patient-specific education resources, MedlinePlus Connect may assist
eligible health care providers in meeting one of the criteria for
meaningful use of certified EHR technology. Health care providers must
meet a number of criteria to demonstrate meaningful use in order to
qualify for Medicare or Medicaid EHR incentive payments under the Health
Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act
provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“One of
our core principles is that meaningful use of EHRs should help patients
get access to information that is meaningful and useful to them,” noted
Farzad Mostashari, M.D., Sc.M., national coordinator for health IT.
“This meaningful use objective helps patients obtain information
tailored to their health situation, and this free service helps
providers do this efficiently.”

The Institute for Family Health, a
federally qualified health center network that operates 26 practices in
New York State, first piloted MedlinePlus Connect in 2010. In 2002,
the Institute became the first health center network in New York to have
an EHR and practice management system. The initial MedlinePlus Connect
pilot, supported by the Institute’s patient health information portal,
was quickly followed by pilots at other health care organizations using a
variety of EHR and patient portal systems.

MedlinePlus Connect can now serve any heath IT system that uses the HL7 Infobutton Standard.

This breakthrough project, which harnesses technology to improve the public’s health, received the coveted HHSinnovates Award from Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on March 31, 2011.

MedlinePlus Connect Quick Facts

• MedlinePlus Connect is free and does not require registration.
• You can link your certified EHR to MedlinePlus Connect to help you achieve one of the 10 menu set criteria for Meaningful Use of certified EHR technology.
• MedlinePlus
  Connect does not have to be used exclusively to link to patient
  education information. Many EHR systems can be configured to link to
  more than one source of consumer health information.
• You only need to implement MedlinePlus Connect once for the whole system; individual links do not need to be created.
• MedlinePlus
  Connect is not a replacement for MedlinePlus. It is a value-added
  service to bring MedlinePlus content to EHR systems and patient portals.

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