Health information exchange

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Health information exchange (HIE) is the mobilization of health care information electronically across organizations within a region, community or hospital system. Participants in data exchange are called in the aggregate Health Information Networks (HIN). In practice, the term HIE may also refer to the health information organization (HIO) that facilitates the exchange.

The goal of HIE is to facilitate access to and retrieval of clinical data to provide to public health authorities in analyses of the health of the population.

Formal organizations support financial statewide health information exchange grants from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. These grants were legislated into the HITECH components of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.^[1] The Regional Health Information Organizations, or RHIOs, are ordinarily geographically defined entities which develop and manage a set of contractual conventions and terms, arrange for the means of electronic exchange of information, and develop and maintain HIE standards.^[2]

In the United States, federal and state regulations regarding HIEs and health information technology (HIT) are still being defined. Federal regulations and incentive programs such as "Meaningful Use", which is formally known as the EHR Incentive Program,^[3][4] are changing. The vast majority of HIEs and RHIOs remain tied to federal, state, or independent grant funding in order to remain operational. Some exceptions exist, such as the Indiana HIE.^[5][6]