UHIN Connects Rural Providers to VA

The Utah Health Information Network (UHIN) (Murray) announced a new pilot program to connect rural health care providers in the Moab, Utah region with the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) to improve access and coordination of patient care for veterans and service members living in rural areas.

As the state designated Health Information Exchange (HIE), UHIN has partnered with Axolotl Corp. (San Jose, Calif.), a provider of HIE services and solutions, to enable the clinical Health Information Exchange (cHIE) connection to the VA, using the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) protocols.

This is the fifth in a series of nationwide pilot programs to expand services to Veterans through access to the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). It is the first pilot with the explicit mission of extending services to rural areas, and among the first to enable the electronic exchange of VA patient data between VA and non-VA clinicians across the state. Authorized physicians will also be able to query the cHIE to view documents from VA-participating physicians located in the rural communities.