The National eHealth Collaborative's (NeHC) Health Information Exchange (HIE) Learning Network presented findings and recommendations from its work developing solutions for the most challenging HIE issues.

“Innovation is critical to every goal we have as a nation,” said Todd Park, U.S. chief technology officer, “and nowhere is it more important than in healthcare.” Park led a panel discussion on health information exchange and interoperability at the Dec. 12 annual meeting of the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT.

The Workgroup for Electronic Data Exchange announced the 2013 class of officers for its board of directors.

The University of Texas at Austin launched a Health Information Exchange (HIE) laboratory, which is designed to simulate the national, state and local networks that are being developed to electronically exchange medical data. The laboratory is part of the university’s health IT program offering a certificate program designed to “fast track” university graduates into the rapidly evolving field of health IT.

Kansas is the first state in the U.S. to connect to the national disease outbreak surveillance system via a digital health information exchange.

Recent surveys about health information exchange (HIE) indicate some contradictory thoughts. For example, satisfaction with HIE vendors is lagging as they struggle to produce the level of interoperability that providers want, according to a KLAS report.

Developing a sustainable business practice and privacy concerns top the list of priorities for health information exchanges this year, according to the results of the eHealth Initiative’s 2012 HIE Survey.

German health payers are currently in the process of issuing electronic health insurance cards to their customers, which is expected to increase providers’ ability to immediately access detailed patient information.