CHIME: HIE growth continues
SAN ANTONIO—The health information exchange (HIE) market is wide and growing, said Jason Hess, research executive vice president for KLAS. He spoke on the topic during CHIME11, the Fall CIO Forum last week.
Other key factors of the current HIE market include:
The number of public HIEs has increased from 37 to 67 since 2009, Hess said, and private HIEs have increased from 62 to 161. HIEs are not considered live until they are actually exchanging data, not just when they are populated or contracted.
Ten vendor technologies cover 70 percent of all validated HIEs and 25 vendors serve the remaining 30 percent.
On the public side, federal monies are responsible for the biggest chunk of funding while hospitals provide the bulk of private HIEs. Both public and private HIEs primarily require access through a portal or some other interface. “More and more are pushing data into physicians’ workflow but we’re not there yet.”
Richard Lang, CIO of Doylestown Hospital in Doylestown, Pa., joined Hess in discussing HIEs. “HIE as a goal or strategy is flawed. If you build for quality and safety, they will come.”
It’s the primary care doctors who really add value to the HIE, he said, so you shouldn’t try to charge them exorbitant fees. Helping them to automate is a major way to help them see the value of an HIE. On the other hand, specialists don’t like automation, he said. But since primary care doctors can’t afford to refer to paper-based specialists anymore, primary care physicians can help to bring specialists along to the HIE.
Other key factors of the current HIE market include:
- The bulk of the growth is on the private side.
- Most physicians have to leave their own workflow to view HIE data.
- Future funding is a big concern for public HIEs.
- The cream of the HIE vendors is slowly rising to the top.
- HL7 is still more popular than clinical care documentation.
The number of public HIEs has increased from 37 to 67 since 2009, Hess said, and private HIEs have increased from 62 to 161. HIEs are not considered live until they are actually exchanging data, not just when they are populated or contracted.
Ten vendor technologies cover 70 percent of all validated HIEs and 25 vendors serve the remaining 30 percent.
On the public side, federal monies are responsible for the biggest chunk of funding while hospitals provide the bulk of private HIEs. Both public and private HIEs primarily require access through a portal or some other interface. “More and more are pushing data into physicians’ workflow but we’re not there yet.”
Richard Lang, CIO of Doylestown Hospital in Doylestown, Pa., joined Hess in discussing HIEs. “HIE as a goal or strategy is flawed. If you build for quality and safety, they will come.”
It’s the primary care doctors who really add value to the HIE, he said, so you shouldn’t try to charge them exorbitant fees. Helping them to automate is a major way to help them see the value of an HIE. On the other hand, specialists don’t like automation, he said. But since primary care doctors can’t afford to refer to paper-based specialists anymore, primary care physicians can help to bring specialists along to the HIE.
Beth Walsh, Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.