RHIO promotes medical info sharing

About 1,000 doctors and 32 hospitals in the Inland Northwest are part of a newly designated Regional Health Information Organization, or RHIO.

The declaration was made this week by Rep. Cathy McMorris and Sen. Patty McMurray, of Washington, and Idaho Sen. Larry Craig.

RHIOs are springing up across the United States in response to a federal push for adoption of health information technology. The widespread electronic exchange of medical information is expected to improve patient care and cut costs and medical errors.

The local version is called NwRHIO and besides the doctors, hospitals and clinics, it also includes Inland Northwest Health Services, Inland Imaging and Pathology Associates Medical Laboratory.

Tom Fritz, CEO of Inland Northwest Health Services, said being designated a RHIO could mean “significant potential for federal grant dollars, research dollars, as well as expansion dollars. It positions us nicely for opportunity.”

The groups involved in NwRHIO already are involved in electronic medical records exchange, and Inland Northwest Health Services is considered a leader in that industry.

Said Fritz, “it reflects very positively on our community that we’re all working together to do the right thing for the patient.”

Fritz added that the groups will formalize the RHIO consortium by hiring staff to coordinate its activities.

VeriSign keeps ‘.net’ contract six more years

New York VeriSign Inc., a company that already exerts significant control over how people send e-mail and find Web sites, was selected this week to run the Internet’s third-most popular suffix for six more years.

The Internet’s key oversight board, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, said Thursday it had renewed VeriSign’s contract for “.net” after reviewing recommendations from an outside panel and comments from the Internet community.

The move was largely expected after Telcordia Technologies Inc., the outside firm selected to evaluate bids to operate “.net” directories, made VeriSign its top pick in March over four other bidders. Rivals complained that the evaluation process was flawed, but Telcordia again backed VeriSign in a revised report in May.

Besides running “.com” and “.net,” which together comprise more than half of all domain names registered, VeriSign controls the master directory that lists all of the Internet’s suffixes, meaning all traffic touches the company’s computers at one point or another.

OPEC, EU talk joint ventures for oil refineries

Brussels, Belgium OPEC is keen to increase investments that would boost production of crude oil, and the group is considering joint ventures with the European Union in new oil refineries, its president said Thursday.

“We think we have the capability to secure supply to the market, especially in the third and fourth quarter of this year, without any problem,” said Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al Ahmed Al Sabah, president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, after meeting with EU officials.

“We are willing to discuss joint investments downstream,” he added.

The Brussels talks, the first at this level between the two organizations, were called to discuss long-term issues of energy supply security and cooperation. EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs called on Al Sabah to raise the oil group’s production to help dampen prices.

Al Sabah said he believes the market is “well supplied” and blamed current high prices on the “psychology of the market.”