eHealth Exchange is proud to announce that its executive director, Jay Nakashima, has been named a 2024 FORUM IT100 Award winner.
Each year, FORUM is proud to honor and recognize leaders making a difference within the Federal Health IT and consulting community. The FORUM IT100 Award (formerly FedHealthIT100) honors individuals lauded by their peers for driving change and advancement within these communities, challenging conventional wisdom, and giving back to the larger community.
With only 100 individuals nominated and selected each year, Nakashima is part of a select group within the Federal Health IT community who are making an impact, going above and beyond, and driving innovation and positive outcomes.
Nakashima is forging the path ahead for healthcare by promoting interoperability on a national scale. eHealth Exchange connects with federal agencies, non-federal healthcare providers, and regional health information exchanges (HIEs) in all 50 states to support trusted medical data exchange nationwide, fostering improved patient care and public health. Having access to patient data across the country enables healthcare providers to make more informed decisions to treat their patients safely and effectively.
Under Nakashima’s leadership, eHealth Exchange works tirelessly to promote new use cases to advance public health. An overwhelming portion of the 80 million electronic case reports are submitted through the eHealth Exchange network to public health. Additionally, eHealth Exchange launched a “Networked FHIR” solution, providing one connection and one trust agreement to facilitate exchange with the Veterans Health Administration (46 states) and 11 large integrated delivery networks (IDNs) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to review and confirm post-vaccination adverse events. It is the largest and most important successful use of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources® (FHIR®) in the United States.
This established how FHIR can be deployed at scale when a trusted intermediary, such as eHealth Exchange, is positioned to support and simplify the adoption of the new FHIR standards. Thus, eHealth Exchange launched another incentive program to accelerate FHIR adoption among non-federal healthcare providers and payers.
“Our work with the public and private sectors is essential,” said Nakashima. “While I am honored to receive this recognition, it really belongs to my staff and our network governance committee made up of participants across federal agencies, health systems, and HIEs. We believe exchange should be made available to all for the public good, and we have worked intentionally to uphold federal standards for transparency, inclusion, and trust.”
Overseeing the U.S. largest healthcare information network, Nakashima’s leadership led to eHealth Exchange being recognized as one of the first candidate Qualified Health Information Networks™ (QHINs™) this year under the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement℠ (TEFCA℠). This signifies that eHealth Exchange is engaged to protect patients’ data, health, and lives through its public-private network.
