Initiate Systems Only Vendor to Complete IHE HL7 V3 Compliance Requirements for PIX and PDQ Manager.

Company Extends Healthcare Standards Leadership with Participation in Healthcare Workgroups, Congressional Proceedings

CHICAGO -- Initiate Systems, Inc., the leading provider of customer-centric master data management solutions for creating complete, real-time views of data about people, households, and organizations, today announced it is the only vendor to pass all Integrating the Health Enterprise (IHE) compliance requirements for support of Health Level 7 Version 3 (HL7 V3) for Patient Identifier Cross-reference (PIX) Manager and Patient Demographic Query (PDQ) Manager interoperability standards. HL7 V3 is an emerging standard for exchanging messages among information systems that implement healthcare applications. Initiate Systems participated in last week's IHE Connectathon where it received a passing grade, making it the only vendor to achieve IHE compliance for PIX Manager and PDQ Manager profiles for both HL7 V2.x and V3.

"Connectathon events are designed to demonstrate vendor collaboration in order to simulate how patient information can be successfully shared across disparate platforms in a clinical setting," said Michael Nusbaum, a member of the IHE Strategic Development Committee, which provides global IHE governance. "Initiate Systems has continually shown its commitment to acting as a healthcare standards leader. The company's role of linking multiple identifiers together for a single patient is critical to patient safety in integrated delivery networks and the success of RHIO environments."

For the past two years, Initiate Systems has participated in three IHE Connectathon events, which enable companies to test their implementation of IHE profiles with information technology systems from multiple vendors. Initiate Systems has actively participated in IHE interoperability demonstrations at HIMSS 2006, IHE Europe Connectathon 2006, and at RSNA 2006, where the company was featured as the only PIX and PDQ technology provider. IHE interoperability demonstrations mimic clinical information exchanges by creating fictitious patient identities and medical histories.

In addition to its support for HL7 V3, Initiate Systems has a long history of leadership in promoting healthcare industry standards and interoperability through its participation in numerous healthcare workgroups

and committees, and Congressional and other governmental proceedings. The company has also authored papers on interoperability standards and other requirements for effectively exchanging healthcare data while protecting data privacy and security.

Promoting Healthcare Standards

Initiate Systems executives have been actively involved in a number of healthcare workgroups and committees sponsored by Markle Foundation's Connecting for Health and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Lorraine Fernandes, senior vice president of Initiate Systems healthcare practice, participated in a Connecting for Health working group on accurately linking information for healthcare quality and safety. The working group's findings are documented in "Linking Health Care Information: Proposed Methods for Improving Care and Protecting Privacy", which can be viewed in full at: http://connectingforhealth.org/assets/reports/linking_report_2_2005.pd f. (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

Michele O'Connor, senior director of Initiate Systems healthcare practice, participated in the Connecting for Health Policy Subcommittee, which created the organization's policy recommendations for the Common Framework as it relates to privacy and security of health information. These recommendations provide guidance for health information exchanges, and the full Common Framework may be accessed at: http://www.connectingforhealth.org/commonframework. Scott Schumacher, Initiate Systems chief scientist, participated in the Connecting for Health Technical Subcommittee, which defined and tested a technological means to match patients with their existing health records, as well as to enable the timely delivery of those records to sites of care, such as hospitals or doctors' offices. Schumacher is currently serving on a Connecting for Health working group that is defining how to authenticate people in order to get records distributed while protecting privacy and security.

Fernandes and O'Connor participated in an AHIMA workgroup on patient identification and data exchange, which published recommended business practices for exchanging information between organizations that can be viewed at: http://library.ahima.org/xpedio/groups/public/documents/ahima/bok1_028 980.hcsp?dDocName=bok1_028980. (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

In addition, Fernandes and O'Connor co-wrote a chapter on requirements for patient matching when exchanging information between organizations for an upcoming book that will be published by Health Information and Management Systems Society in February.

Initiate executives have also testified before governmental committees on healthcare interoperability and patient privacy and safety, including the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, which is the public advisory body to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. They are also frequent speakers at industry events, providing thought leadership on national and international healthcare topics such as patient identification, interoperability, provider registry, national provider identifier and enterprise master person index solutions.

For more information about Initiate Systems, visit www.initiatesystems.com. For more information on IHE Connectathon, visit www.ihe.net/Connectathon/ihena2007.cfm.

About Initiate Systems in Healthcare

Initiate Systems provides software and services for healthcare organizations that want to deliver a comprehensive view of each patient in real time to all points of service. Initiate Identity Hub[TM] software is the most accurate, scalable and rapidly implemented EMPI solution available for healthcare providers, integrated delivery networks (IDNs), independent physicians associations and regional health information organizations (RHIOs), that want to improve patient identification and customer satisfaction, protect data privacy and security, enable interoperability and provide a critical foundation for EHR implementations. More than 50 healthcare organizations have deployed Initiate Identity Hub[TM] software and more than 600 have relied on Initiate for patient data remediation services.

About Initiate Systems

Initiate Systems, Inc. is the leading provider of customer-centric master data management solutions for companies and government agencies that want to create the most complete, real-time views of people, households and organizations from data dispersed across multiple application systems and databases. Initiate Identity Hub[TM] software is more accurate, scalable, rapidly deployed and widely used than any other solution. Many organizations in the financial services, government, healthcare, hospitality and retail sectors are using Initiate[TM] software to deliver the right data at the right time to all critical touch points. Initiate Systems' proven experience makes it uniquely qualified to enable strategic initiatives that allow organizations to increase revenue and efficiency and reduce operating costs and risks. Initiate Systems operates globally through its subsidiaries, with corporate headquarters in Chicago and offices across the U.S., a Canadian office in Toronto, an EMEA office in London and a Pacific Rim office in Sydney.