Sage, which serves more than 400,000 healthcare professionals including approximately 80,000 physicians in North America, will integrate the HIE solution into a version of Sage Intergy to be released later this year. The firm showcased a working prototype of the HIE cloud technology this past weekend during the HIMSS 2011 conference in Orlando, Florida.

“Integration between Sage Intergy EHR and HealthUnity’s HIE will make it easier than ever for hospitals and hospital-owned practices to connect to physicians using Sage solutions,” said Betty Otter-Nickerson, president of Sage Healthcare Division. “The combination of electronic health records and an HIE solution is key to improving patient care and reducing healthcare costs for everyone.”

By integrating with HealthUnity, Sage will expand on its capability to connect to healthcare communities using standards-based protocols. In addition to connecting with existing HIE infrastructure, Sage will be able to work alongside HealthUnity to deploy end-to-end HIE infrastructure to hospitals, accountable care organizations (ACOs) and other healthcare organizations planning to deploy HIE and EHR technology across a community of care.