OMG and FireStar Software Partner to Bring Model Driven Message Interoperability Standard to the Southeast Michigan Health Information Exchange (SEMHIE)

NEEDHAM, Mass., Sept. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- OMG™ and FireStar Software (FireStar) are pleased to announce that their partnership with the Southeast Michigan Health Information Exchange (SEMHIE) and the Southeast Michigan Health Authority (SEMHA) has contributed to SEMHIE receiving contracts from the US Social Security Administration and a Beacon Community Grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services. The combined contracts received by SEMHIE are more than $19 million.  

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090629/DC39325LOGO)

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090629/DC39325LOGO)

The partnership between FireStar and OMG will enable SEMHIE to achieve their goals of dramatically shortening the time and cost of processing Social Security disability claims (SSA Contract) and increasing the quality and decreasing the cost of the treatment of diabetes (Beacon Community Grant) for the citizens of Southeast Michigan.

The cornerstone of this partnership is OMG's Model Driven Message Interoperability™ (MDMI™) Standard. MDMI was developed to achieve information exchange at the highest quality, the lowest implementation cost, and with the ability to incorporate future changes. In both the SSA and Beacon projects, FireStar will apply the MDMI standard to achieve the exchange of healthcare information.

"We are pleased that SEMHIE has been recognized for its vision in applying the MDMI Standard and other standards to increase the quality of healthcare and reduce costs for all members of SEMHIE," said Richard Mark Soley, Ph.D., chairman and CEO of OMG. "FireStar, who has taken the leadership position in the both the MDMI Standard and in working with SEMHIE, was instrumental in reaching the point where we will demonstrate the value of the MDMI Standard for the US Healthcare industry."

"We believe that the power of the MDMI standard represents a quantum improve in quality, cost, and implementation time for healthcare interoperability situations. FireStar looks forward to working with others throughout the US Healthcare system in applying the innovative MDMI Standard so that they can achieve the same benefits as Southeast Michigan," said Ken Lord, CEO of FireStar Software.

"Using MDMI standards will enable SEMHIE to provide high quality, low cost exchange of secure healthcare information for all our participants, from the largest hospital systems to our small private physician practices," said Dr. Robert Jackson, President of SEMHIE.

"Reliable information exchange can be a matter of life or death for healthcare providers. Unfortunately, the reliable exchange of electronic information is an exceptionally difficult problem due to misinterpretations, inaccuracies in data preparation, and convolved meaning. Such problems typically occur as electronic data moves from one software program to another, movement that can be internal or external to an organization. Furthermore, information interoperability challenges are not limited to healthcare. The problem is important to banking, insurance, and electronic commerce," said Joseph M. Bugajski, a Research Vice President who specializes in electronic information management and governance at Gartner. "The interoperability of information between organizations cannot be left to proprietary methods and bilateral agreement; information interoperability demands standardization."

Southeast Michigan Health Information Exchange is an organization whose membership includes Chrysler, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, the Wayne and Oakland County Medical Societies, Greater Detroit Area Health Council, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Michigan State University, MPRO, and the Henry Ford Health System, Detroit Medical Center, Oakwood, Beaumont Hospitals, Trinity Health, and St. John Providence Health System and others. Its goal is to provide an interoperable health information exchange for the benefit of the residents, providers and other stakeholders in Southeast Michigan.

About MDMI

Message interoperability reduces costs, increases data quality and increases revenue. By automating interoperability between disparate systems, MDMI improves communications, helps reduce errors and provides a way to address future business changes. MDMI lets institutions use standardized maps provided by message format owners (including standards bodies, financial institutions and others) to correctly map information in message formats. Facilitating and mediating information across a number of message formats is a high cost obligation for institutions in healthcare, banking, insurance, and other industries. The standard also provides a migration path to new message formats. The MDMI standard specification was submitted by FireStar Software, IBM, Informatica, IP Commerce and VISA with support from Adaptive and SWIFT, and was approved in 2009.

For more information about MDMI Labs, see http://www.mdmi-consortium.org/labs; for more information about OMG, visit http://www.omg.org/. Questions about membership in OMG or the MDMI Consortium and participating in MDMI Labs may be directed to Ken Berk at +1-781-444 0404 or [email protected].

About FireStar Software

FireStar Software builds software for Service Providers who build and maintain electronic information exchanges. With our flagship product, EdgeNode, FireStar directly addresses and solves the key obstacles that have limited the adoption of electronic message exchange to only the largest entities to allow a much broader and richer adoption that includes the Small and Medium Business. FireStar Software is a portfolio company of Amphion Innovations plc (AIM: AMP). For more information on FireStar, visit www.firestarsoftware.com.

About OMG

OMG™ is an international, open membership, not-for-profit computer industry standards consortium. OMG Task Forces develop enterprise integration standards for a wide range of technologies and an even wider range of industries. OMG's modeling standards enable powerful visual design, execution and maintenance of software and other processes. For more information, visit www.omg.org.

Note to editors: For a listing of all OMG trademarks, visit http://www.omg.org/legal/tm_list.htm. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE OMG (Object Management Group)