UNC Health Care, IBM introduce major US Health Information Exchange

By eGovInnovation Editors | Mar 7, 2011

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FLORIDA --  UNC Health Care and IBM recently launched a new health information exchange (HIE) to improve the flow of reliable health information among their affiliated hospitals and physician practices throughout North Carolina in the United States.

The new UNC Health Care HIE is expected to be among the most advanced in the US, creating a model for the rest of North Carolina as well as other states.

States, regions, hospitals and physician practices throughout the US are working to meet federal requirements to adopt electronic medical records and connect stakeholders through HIEs to begin creating the infrastructure, incentives, and measures to interchange data effectively.

With the new system in place, health care providers will be able to quickly access electronic medical records, lab results and radiology reports, while medical information follows patients throughout the hospital system and outlying clinics.

IBM’s technology and services for HIE and patient identification already touch  80 percent of the population of North America and are relied on by more than 100 large healthcare systems, more than 40 health information exchanges and the nation’s largest retail pharmacies.

“Our vision is an integrated healthcare system that allows medical information to follow patients,” said J.P. Kichak, chief information officer, UNC Health Care.  “More importantly, we’re building a health information exchange based on a national standard to help ensure when one of our patients goes outside of our system for any reason, their records can be accessed by other hospitals in keeping with the hope of one day contributing to a nationwide system of connected care.”