Regions work to exchange health information

Abstract

President Bush declared a year ago that he wants the government to pave the way for “an interoperable health information technology infrastructure to improve the quality and efficiency of health care.” Such an effort takes time—the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is reportedly sorting through some 5000 pages of suggestions for the national health information network—and not all health systems and care providers want to wait for the government. Some of these health systems and care providers envisioned communitywide or regional real-time exchange of patient-specific clinical information years before Bush made his intention known. At least 100 first-generation regional health information organizations (RHIOs) are in development, according to the Bush administration’s leader in health information technology, David Brailer. In fact, the RHIO that Brailer and colleagues in southern California started in 1999 is expected to be fully usable in April or May 2005, said Mike Skinner, executive director of Santa Barbara County Care Data Exchange.