Health Information Exchanges and Public Health: Lessons From the Field

The anticipated successes and challenges of Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) have been widely presented and are extensively recognized across the country; however, the integration of public health with HIEs as well as the on-the-ground realities of HIE implementation have only begun to be discussed. As HIEs become operational, questions to examine include:

• Are there experiences and data to suggest that public health agencies and public health data bring value to HIEs?

• How will long-term economic viability of HIEs overcome the challenge of developing workable financial sustainability models?

• Does easy-to-access, comprehensive data inform health care delivery decisions?

This presentation will be a 90 minute panel discussion engaging HIE field experts from public and private industry where insight and experiences will be shared and discussed around policy, processes, application along with economics, risks, and return on investment. The PHIN audience will benefit from this session by obtaining a working knowledge of health information exchanges through case discussion, leveraging national experts from Health Information Management Systems Society and InfoLinks, a Robert Wood Johnson funded initiative to integrate public health agencies with emerging and established HIEs. Real-world perspectives on the questions above will be shared by representatives from a private HIE organization and a public health department using a case study to illustrate the practical realities, challenges and discovered benefits. This increased awareness will translate into practice by increasing the knowledge and lessons of health information exchanges to enable transformational public health informatics as well as health care reform initiatives.