I read the article in Health Managemement Technology about a bottom-up approach to HIEs that is directed by healthcare systems. And, while I agree that this may be a good way to get started, I also believe it won't take too long before multiple systems/providers need to form a RHIO for the management of the HIE.
I'm a really committed optimist, but even I know that at some point, multiple organizations need to form a separate organization to run the HIE because it gets too big, complicated, etc. I'll be the first to admit that few special collaboratives can hold out much longer than any other, but I don't see a widespread bottom-up approach working for every community over the long run.
That article is from the time-honored vendor hype machine mode (i.e., churning out self-attested attaboys and trolling for customers). Redwood MedNet has the same "agent" technology capability as "Novo Grid" but we use open source sofware shared with hundreds of other healthcare facilities, and we operate a bottom-up HIE as a community health data coop to keep corporate predators (and their press releases) at bay.
Posted by: will ross | December 28, 2009 at 08:19 AM