Across the pond. Should HIE leaders in the U.S. look to European progress for clues going forward? Yes, with caveats, says one international IT expert.
European nations such as the U.K., Denmark, and the Netherlands, have already spent several years developing nationwide health information exchange (HIE) systems, and working through policy, procedural, and technological issues. Issues around the creation of national patient identifier numbers, patient permissions for data-sharing, privacy and security of data, data standards, and others, have been and are being addressed in European healthcare systems. Given the fact that European healthcare systems are mostly or entirely government-run, there is no question that the resolution of some of these issues will prove more complex and time-consuming in the U.S. than has been the case in Europe. CIOs can begin now to think about infrastructure, data-sharing, patient permissions, standards, and other issues, as HIE begins to evolve forward at the local, state and regional levels in the U.S.
Hagland
Mark
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D005060:Europe; D038622:Internationality; D008498:Medical Record Linkage; D011340:Problem Solving; D016730:Program Development; D012040:Regional Health Planning; D014481:United States