Mining Data For State CDC, Maine HIE Pilot Project Aims For Population Analysis

The Maine HealthInfoNet is aggregating and analyzing health information exchange data at the population level, with the aim of finding trends and specific figures that currently evade most tools of epidemiology.

In a pilot project funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HealthInfoNet, Maine’s statewide HIE, is collecting and assembling data for the Maine CDC, using the open source software popHealth. The project focuses on 13 Meaningful Use clinical quality measures using the ABCDS — aspirin therapy, blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes control and smoking cessation.

It should let public health researchers find out, for instance, what percentage of Mainers with diabetes have sugar levels under control and what percentage of hypertension patients had their blood pressure checked during their last medical visit.