Industry analysts expect 2011 to be a big year for medical technology. If the number of states getting set to launch health information exchanges (HIEs) is any indication, these predictions are likely to be correct.
Several states from diverse areas of the country have either implemented or are in the planning stages of launching an HIE. This is a vital step in the nation's transition to an entirely electronic healthcare system that exclusively uses electronic health records, which many experts believe will result in tremendous savings and improvements in quality.
Louisiana may soon become one of the first states in the nation to implement a fully integrated HIE. Government Health IT reported that state officials were recently given the go-ahead from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to set up a state-wide [does this need to be hyphenated?] exchange.
The plan was actually put on the fast track by the office and may select a vendor to handle the infrastructure by the middle of April.
Louisiana has several things going for it in its pursuit of a state-wide HIE. First, it was given a $10.6 million grant through the HITECH Act almost a year ago. These funds went directly to the Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum, which is in charge of developing the HIE.
Second, there is already a strong infrastructure in place. The news source reports that there are several smaller exchanges already operating in Louisiana, which officials hope can be stitched together to form a more cohesive entity that will connect doctors from all across the state. This could save officials from having to duplicate work that has already been done.
"We have included representatives of key stakeholders across the state to make sure that we build upon efforts that are already in place," Jenny Smith, the HIE program manager for the organization, told the news source. "We will leverage what we can and we won't replace anything that doesn’t need to be replaced."
The state of North Carolina may not be too far behind. Officials from UNC Health Care announced today that have launched a fully functioning HIE that could potentially connect any doctor in the state. There could still be some work to do to achieve this goal, as the system currently only serves doctors who are a part of the UNC Health Care network, but officials think that it is a major step in the right direction.
Officials said that their network covers up to 80 percent of the population of North Carolina, making it a sizeable exchange. Future plans for the network include extending it to all of the state's providers to ensure that all residents have access to the high quality of care that results from the use of electronic health records. They are also focusing on interoperability.
"Our vision is an integrated healthcare system that allows medical information to follow patients," said JP Kichak, chief information officer, UNC Health Care. "More importantly, we're building a health information exchange based on a national standard to help ensure when one of our patients goes outside of our system for any reason, their records can be accessed by other hospitals."
These smaller state-level efforts are bringing the country steps closer to achieving the ultimate goal of a fully integrated nationwide HIE. This may seem like a lofty goal, but David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health IT, is currently pushing his office to develop standards by which any HIE would operate. This would ensure that a patient's records truly will travel with them wherever they go.