Five major players in health care software are banding together to form the “CommonWell Health Alliance,” which will be dedicated to the establishment of a national standard of interoperability.
 
The collaboration was announced at the HIMSS13 Annual Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans on March 4.
 
The CommonWell Health Alliance will begin operating early next year, Forbes reports. The alliance is comprised of vendors Cerner, McKesson, Allscripts, athenahealth, Greenway Medical Technologies and RelayHealth, according to the press release announcing its formation.
 
The alliance’s initial work will focus on making record sharing between providers easier, and helping providers locate and gain access to different aspects of a patient’s medical record, the announcement goes on to say.
 
 “The founding members of the Alliance are focused on exactly the right foundational areas, and it’s terrific to see industry leaders stepping up to solve the problem of interoperability on behalf of providers and patients everywhere,” says Janet Marchibroda, director of the Health Innovation Initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center, in the press release.