Few vendors supporting health information exchange, report states
Most of the exchanges are fueled by federal and state grants
Four vendors appear to be market leaders in health information exchanges, according to a new report from Klas Research.
Klas surveyed and validated 89 operational health information exchange organizations that are using commercial technologies to share patient data that is being viewed by doctors, according to its new report, "Health Information Exchanges: The Reality of HIE Adoption," released Feb. 9.
Read the new Health Information Exchanges report here.
The majority of the exchanges, about 70 percent, are funded through state and federal grants.
Overall, the report surveyed 22 vendors supporting the exchanges, with most having two to three clients.
Software vendor Axolotl has the most live clients, with seven exchanges using its software. Epic also had seven clients, but its solution currently only connects other Epic customers, the report said.
Among acute-to-ambulatory exchanges, where at least one hospital or health system is sharing data with a clinic, lab or other ambulatory facility, Medicity’s Novo Grid was the clear leader with 22 live sites, the report said.
RelayHealth had eight validated sites in the acute-to-ambulatory space.
Jason Hess, Klas general manager of clinical research and author of the report, said in a news release that the most successful vendors had the least complex approaches.
“The eclectic way that clinical information is structured, stored, labeled and shipped makes it very difficult for vendors to connect all of the discrete data elements. In the majority of cases, health information exchange vendors are opting to pass around packets of information without necessarily taking ownership of what is in the packet,” Hess wrote.
About the Author
Alice Lipowicz is a staff writer covering government 2.0, homeland security and other IT policies for Federal Computer Week.