HealthLINC, a community Health Information Exchange (HIE) organization, is granting just over $33,000 to the Bloomington Health Foundation to fund local and regional health-related initiatives. Created in 2007, HealthLINC was largely responsible for spearheading electronic health record adoption for healthcare systems and providers across Southern Indiana. In July of 2019, HealthLINC’s BOD of directors voted to dissolve the organization.
“HealthLINC was ahead of its time,” said Jon Barada, President and CEO of the Bloomington Health Foundation. “For our community to have a local health information exchange truly put Bloomington ahead of the curve. Our community owes Dr. Todd Rowland, Kathy Church, and all those who made HealthLINC possible, a debt of gratitude for the countless lives they touched.”
The grant will help people across Southern Indiana lead healthier lives through the following initiatives:
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- Michael J. Melby Patient Medication Assistance Fund: In memory of the late Michael Melby, long time pharmacist, Director of Clinical Innovation and Activation for the IU Health Regional Academic Health Campus and former Chief Executive Officer for HealthLINC, the fund will provide medication financial assistance to patients of IU Health South Central Region, Centerstone Bloomington, and HealthNet Bloomington. The Michael Melby Family invites donations in Michael’s honor to this Fund via bloomhf.org/donate.
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- Miss Kendra Program: Thrive Orange County will be implementing an evidence-based norm change curriculum, Miss Kendra Programs, in grades K-5 at Springs Valley Elementary School.
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- Peds Teen Domain Fund: Support for an innovative and established group of local stakeholders with history of process design and problem solving which will result in improving care for high-risk pediatric and adolescent patients.
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- Bloomington Health Foundation’s High Impact Community Health Solutions Fund: Funding focused on helping the people of Bloomington and neighboring communities lead healthier lives in alignment with the Foundation’s mission and philanthropic purposes.
“HealthLINC was very innovative and focused on community providers as an early health information exchange. When I retired as founding Dean of the IU School of Informatics, I very much appreciated serving on its Board and working with its founding CEO, Dr. Todd Rowland. Sadly, innovation and service are not always sufficient for survival. Yet, the good news is HealthLINC played an important role in patient care for many years for Southern Indiana and made a positive impact nationally,” said Michael Dunn, past president of the Board.
HealthLINC served as a regional HIE that provided a secure results delivery system between hospitals, independent laboratory and radiology entities, and healthcare practices including those treating the under-served. This system set the stage for significant care coordination improvements such as clinical messaging and data connected electronic medical records. HealthLINC then grew beyond data sharing by providing timely healthcare topics at annual conferences, leading the innovation of alerts in behavioral health with Centerstone and in college clinics with Indiana University Bloomington, and providing much of Southern Indiana with Meaningful Use and Practice Transformation guidance. HealthLINC also facilitated the creation of focused workgroups that convened siloed stakeholders to solve problems and design processes as they provided care to shared high-risk patients. HealthLINC also educated dozens of college students in understanding Health Information Exchange.
Nearly one year ago, HealthLINC’s board of directors voted to dissolve their organization which ceased operations in December 2019. They cited the changing landscape of the local medical community and “duplicative” services as the reason for disbanding.
To contribute a gift to any of the above funds, visit Bloomhf.org/donate.
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