CareScience Selected by Western North Carolina Health Network for Clinical Data Sharing Planning.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Network of 16 Hospitals Begins Phase I of Project to Improve Patient Care and Increase Efficiencies

CareScience, a division of Quovadx, Inc. (Nasdaq:QVDX) providing care management, clinical analysis and regional health information organization data sharing solutions, today announced a new agreement with The Western North Carolina Health Network (The WNC Network), a collaboration of hospitals, county health departments and healthcare providers in western North Carolina, to conduct assessment and implementation planning to electronically link the region's providers to share clinical data. Once implemented, the project will provide secure access to clinical patient data for physicians at member hospitals, in an effort to improve the quality of patient care. The WNC Network is a collaboration of 16 independent non-profit hospitals in a 16 county area in western North Carolina. The Network serves approximately 700,000 residents.

"The hospitals in the WNC Network continually strive to improve patient care across the counties we serve," said Mark Leonard, president, WNC Network. "We believe that providing physician access to complete electronic medical records for patients moving between hospitals in the network will improve the quality of care we provide. In addition, we expect to decrease time spent on administrative tasks, lowering costs and allowing more funds to be diverted to pressing medical issues in our community, such as indigent care."

The data link project will allow physicians and clinicians at WNC Network hospitals to securely access patient medical records from other member hospitals. To conduct the project implementation and planning, the CareScience consulting team will leverage experience gained from the development of its Care Data Exchange(R) technology. The Care Data Exchange solution (CDE) is the first brokered peer-to-peer reporting solution of its kind -- making it possible for caregivers to access and analyze clinical results, and then use those results to drive meaningful process changes. The solution combines proven integration technology with facilitation and support services to allow clinical data to be pulled from disparate IT systems, whether within or beyond a single healthcare organization's information infrastructure. The CDE provides a secure, comprehensive answer to patient identity resolution, consent management and results display.

The WNC Network was created in the early 1990's to identify cost-effective, collaborative opportunities among the hospitals and healthcare systems serving western North Carolina. The network includes 16 independent hospitals, 13 health departments and the Mountain Area Health Education Center in a 17-county region. The Network helps its members meet the challenges of the changing healthcare environment in western North Carolina in a variety of areas, including quality initiatives, community benefits and cost savings. The WNC Network received $2.5 million in HRSA grants to embark on a clinical data-sharing project in 2003.

"Each WNC Network member hospital is independently owned and has invested significant time and funds into building its own technology systems. Therefore, it was imperative that we identify a way to tie these systems together, without infringing on the security, privacy and ownership of the data contained in each hospital's proprietary IT system," added Gary Bowers, executive director, WNC Network. "Through the help of Congressman Charles Taylor and grants from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, we were able to fund the first phase of the data link solution. We look forward to expanding our clinical data sharing goals to include the addition of other Network members and to support the Network's community health initiatives, such as improving asthma treatment in the future."

"We are excited to conduct the needs assessment and planning for a data link for the WNC Network," said Jerry Rankin, market development executive, Care Data Exchange Group, CareScience. "We are looking forward to using our expertise, gained in large part during our previous Care Data Exchange assessments, to tailor the solution to meet the organization's specific IT, regional and process needs."

"The data link project will help make clinical data sharing an affordable, feasible reality for the WNC Network," added Tom Zajac, president, CareScience division of Quovadx. "In addition to improving pro-active and comprehensive patient care in the region, the project will grow with the community and help them keep pace with its patients changing needs."

About CareScience

CareScience, a division of Quovadx, Inc. (Nasdaq:QVDX), is one of the nation's leading providers of care management services and analytical solutions to hospitals and health systems, and a pioneer in community-wide clinical data exchange. CareScience supplies the people and technology to ensure that high-quality care is delivered, throughout the healthcare system, through clinical data access and clinical process transformation. For more information, please visit www.carescience.com.

About The Western North Carolina Health Network

The WNC Health Network is a collaboration of hospitals, county health departments and other healthcare providers in western North Carolina to support the delivery of cost-effective, quality health services to our region. The Network maintains a visionary community focus supported by collaboration, integrity and respect among our healthcare providers.

QUOVADX is a trademark of Quovadx, Inc. Care Data Exchange is a registered trademark of the California HealthCare Foundation. All other company and product names mentioned may be trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.