New consortium to drive exchange
After several regional health information exchanges (HIEs) merged in recent months, even more have come together to form a new national consortium.
More than 20 HIEs have banded together to form the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC).
The organization seeks to cultivate the exchange of ideas and business improvements, as well as public education and advocacy, among its members. An executive director will be named to lead the consortium in 2015.
“We believe that there are valuable services that a national consortium can provide to member HIEs such as achieving economies of scale, promoting business models for the sustainability of HIEs, educating and increasing awareness of HIEs among public and private entities, providing opportunities for the establishment of joint ventures and collaborating to inform legislators and policy makers of the benefits to the communities served by our members,” said Dick Thompson, executive director of Quality Health Network, in a statement. “In addition, we would like a trade organization that speaks for HIEs exclusively and is focused solely on helping HIEs fulfill their community mission."
Will a professional association drive greater information exchange? This along with efforts to promulgate the FHIR interoperability standard through the Argonaut Project just might garner enough momentum to put HIE on the fast track.
Beth Walsh
Clinical Innovation + Technology 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.