AmeriHealth New Jersey launches statewide program to give physicians shared, web access to patient imaging records

Done right, this will save lives and reduce costs. Presumaby this will be using Xebra. More details to follow. SV

The exchange, now in the pilot program stage, is being built by Philadelphia-based HxTechnologies (HxTI), a health care IT and services company specializing in health information exchange. HxTI will also operate the system, and continually audit system use to enforce compliance.

Philadelphia – November 6, 2007 – Today HxTechnologies, Inc. (HxTI) announced the public availability and free open source licensing of the Xebra™ platform for web-based distribution and clinical review of medical imaging.

The software provides healthcare organizations and software developers with all the necessary components to securely transmit and review medical images over a network such as the Internet. Unlike its closed and proprietary predecessors locked to a single vendor, Xebra is intended to work alongside any picture archiving and communication system (PACS) and to provide advanced imaging capabilities to a wide range of healthcare IT applications. Written in Java, the software is designed to run on any operating system with an ultra-thin client that can be launched over the Web without any installation required by the end user.

In addition to image navigation and manipulation tools, the initial release of Xebra introduces features not generally available in web viewers offered with current PACS solutions. Xebra provides interoperability based on the latest industry standards such as JPEG2000 and WADO and contains advanced encryption and network security features especially well suited for health information exchanges (HIEs), regional health information organizations (RHIOs), longitudinal electronic health records (EHRs) and personal health records (PHRs) accessed over the Web.

HxTI