Developing Sustainable Health Information Exchanges

The medical and public health benefits of the investment in HIT cannot be achieved without the optimal adoption of electronic medical records and the implementation of Health Information Exchanges (HIE). While Health Information Exchanges generate value to various stakeholder, the implementation of sustainable HIEs is a major challenge facing most states in these difficult budgetary times. Sustainability depends on the rate of adoption of the HIEs, the ability to demonstrate value to the disparate stakeholders and secure continuous funding from the payers and other third parties such as foundations. Technical challenges and privacy concerns as well as the lack of alignment of the interests of the stakeholders also pose major challenges to the implementation of sustainable Health Information Exchanges. Public health informaticians possess the competencies needed to develop and implement sustainable HIEs.