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Regional exchanges slow to get going
■ An occasional snapshot of current facts and trends in medicine.
Quick View. Posted Jan. 7, 2008
Most regional health information organizations are struggling to get up and running.
In a new survey, Harvard University researchers call into question the current approach to financing what many see as the building blocks of an evolving national health information network -- an approach the researchers say relies mostly on small grants and a wait-and-see attitude. The Harvard study states that one in four RHIOs identified in June 2006 were considered defunct by the start of 2007 -- or 36 of the 138 RHIOs in the initial sample. Of the remaining 102 RHIOs, 83 participated in the survey. Just 20 were judged to be functioning on a "modest" scale (defined as exchanging clinical data for least 5,000 patients), and only 15 did so for a broad subset of patients.
Note: RHIOs could choose more than one answer.
Source: "The State of Regional Health Information Organizations: Current Activities and Financing," Health Affairs online, Dec. 11, 2007
