It looks like Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D) hopes to play catch up. When it comes to health IT, Ohio is lagging a bit behind other states, some of which are vigorously promoting health IT initiatives like e-prescribing and health information exchanges. Now, Gov. Strickland has issued an order creating an advisory board to coordinate public and private efforts aimed at building its own statewide HIE. 

The new Ohio Health Information Partnership Advisory Board is chaired by the state's CIO. It's tasked with developing a plan for pulling together the HIE. It should help to pull together some relatively advanced efforts, such as the Cincinnati HealthBridge RHIO, but will extend their efforts. The group has just over 12 months to develop the plans.

To learn more about the state's plans:
- read this Government HealthIT piece [1]

Related Articles:
Ohio health system rolls out e-prescribing. Report [2]
Kentucky moves ahead with HIE plans. Report [3]
Minnesota backs statewide HIE. Report [4]