About Health Information Exchange and RHIOs

What is Health Information Exchange?

Health Information Exchange (HIE) is a way to electronically make personal and medical information securely available among doctors, hospitals and other health care providers when it is needed for care. A secure electronic HIE allows patients to make sure their health information is available when they need it while seeking medical care or treatment. HIE enables authorized physicians and other health care providers to share a patient's clinical results across institutional boundaries.

Easier and more efficient access to information promotes continuity of treatment, provides emergency providers with more accurate and complete information, prevents duplication of services and minimizes harm from unnecessary procedures.

What is a RHIO?

A Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) is a multi-stakeholder governance entity that convenes non-affiliated health and health care-related providers and the beneficiaries they serve for the purpose of improving health care for the communities in which it operates. A RHIO takes responsibility for the processes that enable HIE within a defined geographic area. BHIX is a RHIO.

RHIOs are currently being established around the nation to promote HIE. About 300-400 RHIOs are in development as the federal and state governments promote national standards for secure exchange of electronic health information. RHIOs are the proposed building blocks of an interoperable national health information network first proposed in late 2004 by David Brailer MD and his team at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT). RHIOs are an essential component in the vision of the emerging State Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY) envisioned by the New York State Department of Health, Office of Health Information Technology Transformation.