Calif. Foundation Donates Software Code to Spur HIE

The Oakland-based California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) is donating software components from a $10 million health information data exchange project to Open Health Tools (OHT), a community of information technology and healthcare participants based in Asheville, N.C.

According CHCF, the open source-format software code is being provided to help OHT accelerate the establishment of regional health information exchanges. CHCF originally supported development of the applications for the Santa Barbara County Data Exchange, a health information exchange that ceased operations in 2006 for lack of a sustainable business model, it says.