HIMSS Foundation and National eHealth Collaborative merge

The HIMSS Foundation and the National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC) are one as of today.

The merger combines the two organizations’ educational strengths and brings several new resources into the HIMSS fold, including NeHC’s health information exchange programs and its portfolio of educational programs and resources.

The HIMSS Foundation, the educational arm of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, will incorporate all NeHC resources and programs under the HIMSS website. In 2014, the combined group will create the HIMSS Center for Patient- and Family-Centered Care.

NeHC launched five years ago as a public-private initiative funded by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). Its main focus has been on fostering health information exchange and providing health IT education platforms.

"The merger of the HIMSS Foundation and NeHC offers an opportunity to use the strengths of the two organizations to create a more patient- and family-centered healthcare system with better outcomes and greater value; to improve the quality, safety, cost-effectiveness and access to care; and to ensure the right information is available to the right person at the right time," said Carla Smith, MA, CNM, FHIMSS, HIMSS executive vice president, in a HIMSS release.

Pamela Tabar

Pamela Tabar was editor-in-chief of I Advance Senior Care from 2013-2018. She has worked as a writer and editor for healthcare business media since 1998, including as News Editor of Healthcare Informatics. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and a master’s degree in English from the University of York, England.