national health information network

New HIE to span 12 European countries

Anne Zieger — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:52:33 -0400

Here at FierceHealthIT, we usually report on projects taking place in the United States, but this one was so large, we couldn't resist giving you an update. With support from the European Commission, a three-year health data sharing project involving a group of 12 European countries is taking place that hopes to accomplish a level of large-scale health sharing that has still eluded us in the U.S. The countries have launched the European Patient Smart Open Services (epSOS) project, which works to create interoperability between national e-health systems in the participating countries.

Every country involved already has its own system of storing healthcare information, and the systems typically can't share information. Now, however, the countries are hoping to build a system akin to the planned National Health Information Network underway in the U.S. Patent summaries and e-prescription services are already in place in some countries, but even those aren't universally available or shareable.

To learn more about the project:
- read this Healthcare IT News piece
- review the epSOS site

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Study: More providers joining HIEs

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:59:54 -0400

While the process is slow, it appears that more healthcare providers are gradually linking up with health information exchanges, according to a new study released by IDC-HII. For example, 15 percent of hospital respondents to one IDC-HII survey said they were participating in an HIE, and 35 percent more said they were in active discussions to do so. Meanwhile, in a February 2008 IDC-HII poll of community hospital CIOs, 22.7 percent said their health system was participating in an HIE, 18.2 percent planned to do so within less than a year, and 27.3 percent were considering the HIE option. One side note was that 33 percent of the CIOs who were involved in an HIE said they were part of a "proprietary HIE," one tied to a sponsor such as an integrated delivery network. To me, this suggests that while HIE penetration may be growing, the national health information network remains painfully far from being realized.

To learn more about IDI-HII's research:
- read this Healthcare IT News piece

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