Healtheway has been renamed The Sequoia Project www.sequoiaqproject.org to rebrand the organization. Healtheway’s purpose has expanded dramatically since it was formed three years ago by industry and government. Today it serves as the neutral convener to advance health IT interoperability.
The new name, The Sequoia Project, reflects its growth and better describes the capabilities of the organization as it contributes to significant expansion of health IT interoperability across the country.
“We chose the name, The Sequoia Project because sequoia trees are among the largest and oldest on earth”, said Mariann Yeager, CEO of the Sequoia Project. “The name is aspirational as we’re building something that can grow on a national scale and that can stand the test of time.”
“The sequoia tree is also interesting because each tree can stand alone, but when there is a cluster of trees, their shallow root systems connect, supporting each other and accelerating their growth. Similarly, individual organizations and interoperability initiatives in health IT become much stronger and deliver more value by working together. That was also the rationale behind our new tag line “Connected We Stand.”
The Sequoia Project’s business model will remain similar to Healtheway’s, namely serving as the convener for interoperability and serving as a home for industry-wide interoperability initiatives that require a third-party steward working in the public interest.
The Sequoia Project will continue to steward “Carequality and the eHealth Exchange” and intends to expand its list of initiatives in the coming years to incorporate additional interoperability projects as well as to promote widespread education about HIE issues.
According to Yeager, “The Sequoia Project cut its teeth on some of the biggest HIE projects in the country. We already operate the largest health information exchange network in the U.S and we’re making real progress on connecting all existing networks nationwide together for interoperability.”
The Sequoia Project plans to extend its role within health information exchange to support critical initiatives and promote the operational use of interoperability. The organization will include leading new operational data exchange initiatives so that organizations or collaboratives looking for a third-party neutral convener to serve as the steward for their work will be encouraged to consider the Sequoia Project.
The Project will take the lead in pilots, serve as a subject matter expert, and jointly work with other endeavors to achieve operational solutions. The project is already collaborating with groups such as HIMSS, WEDI, The Care Connectivity Consortium, and others.
Also, education and research will expand to include projects relevant to issues impacting operational health IT interoperability. For example, the organization will soon release the results of a two year study looking into best practices for patient matching without a unique patient ID, to encourage the healthcare industry to use the patient matching attributes that lead to the most successful results.
For more information, go to www.sequoiaproject.org and go to Twitter @SequoiaProject.