Many paths, one general direction

Mary Stevens, Editor of CMIO

A look at the health information exchange (HIE) news over the past month shows increasing activity around the U.S. as more providers, vendors and statewide systems light up new areas and more health data is exchanged. This month’s interviews with NoVaRHIO officials and the CEO of the National eHealth Collaborative highlight ways that HIE can enable better communication among ED staff, and the Nationwide Health Information Network’s potential role in disease management.

None of this, from statewide HIEs to the proposed national framework, happened quickly, of course. In the case of six recipients of an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) data-sharing initiative, it took five years, predating ARRA, meaningful use and much of the current healthcare reform debate. This month, AHRQ cited the results of the five-year, $5 million State and Regional Demonstration (SRD) in health IT: All six recipients developed successful data sharing at the regional or state level. In 2004, AHRQ awarded SRD contracts to organizations in Colorado, Indiana, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Utah, and Delaware was added in 2005.

Interestingly, all six SRDs completed a common set of data-sharing deliverables, but developed a variety of approaches with different technical, business and governance models.

In addition to the state HIE headliners in this packet, there also was plenty happening in the realm of “small-letter” HIE—that is, smaller, private intra-organization information exchanges. Among the month’s news in this corner of exchange was Oregon’s St. Charles Health System's use of Allscripts’ EHR and practice management software to create an integrated health information system across the health system’s employed and affiliated physicians. St. Charles, a private nonprofit organization that operates four hospitals, also will provide an HIE to allow the hospital and physicians to exchange test results and other clinical information from the EHR.

In the vendor space, Alert Notification joined Verizon’s Medical Data Exchange to share digital health information between physicians and healthcare organizations. Alert will use Verizon Medical Data Exchange in conjunction with its emergency notification and medical records access service.

Looking at so many initiatives that are all over the map, both geographically and in scope, one might miss the fact that they’re all generally heading in the same direction. As Geoffrey Brown, CIO of Inova Health System, says in the NoVaRHIO interview, “Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent nationwide on systems that do not communicate with one another. Organizations like NoVARHIO will enable data exchange to occur among physician practices and other entities that operate outside health care systems like Inova.”

What information is your organization exchanging, and how? Let me know at mstevens@trimedmedia.com

Mary Stevens,
Editor of CMIO