The non-profit Markle Foundation released a report today that assesses the impact e-prescribing had during the response to Hurricane Katrina. In the days after the storm struck, a group of non-profits and tech companies pooled their resources to launch KatrinaHealth.org, a Web site that gave authorized medical professionals online access to medical information gathered from a number of sources. Organizers were able to gain access to prescription data from government databases, private insurers and pharmacy benefit managers. The system, which allowed doctors at the Astrodome and clinics in Texas and Louisiana to access patient information, is considered one of the greatest successes of the relief effort.
- read this release from the Markle Foundation