Question

More than 100 regional health information organizations (RHIOs) have been formed to date. These grass roots organizations face the challenge of exchanging data effectively in an environment which lacks a national interoperability model. Given the lack of interoperability standards and the potential for insufficient or inadequate security arrangements, can a coherent public health infrastructure be created through a RHIO network? Is it possible for such a national networked system to evolve from grass roots efforts as they are evolving today? What are sustainable economic models for these organizations and could support for the public health infrastructure be a way to offer support for both security and some base of stable funding?

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Answers from AMIA Members

Octo Barnett, M.D.
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Senior Research Director, Laboratory of Computer Science Massachusetts General Hospital

Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, PhD, FAAN
Moehlman Bascom Professor, School of Nursing and College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Margo Edmunds, PhD
Principal Strategist, AIR Health and Adjunct Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins Department of Health Policy and Management

Mark Frisse, MD, MA, MSc
Professor, Vanderbilt Center for Better Health

Jonathan Teich, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard University, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Healthvision, Waltham MA Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham & Women's Hospital