Sixteen health information organizations (HIOs) throughout the Midwest and Rocky Mountain states formed a consortium that will aim to develop data exchange across regional and state lines.
The organization, the Mid-States Consortium of HIOs, is made up of the following groups:
1. Colorado Regional Health Information Organization
2. Community Health Information Collaborative (Minnesota)
3. Coordinated Care Oklahoma
4. Health Information Network Of Arizona
5. HealthShare, Montana, Inc.
6. Idaho Health Data Exchange
7. Iowa Health Information Network
8. Kansas Health Information Network, Inc.
9. Missouri Health Connection
10. MyHealth Access Network, Inc. (Oklahoma)
11. Nebraska Health Information Initiative
12. North Dakota Health Information Network
13. Quality Health Network (Colorado)
14. South Dakota Health Link at DOH
15. Southeast Texas Health System
16. SMRTNET (Oklahoma)
A 17th organization, the Community Service Council, based out of Tulsa, Okla., is not an HIO but has joined the Mid-States Consortium of HIOs as a supporting organization.
Many of these organizations, such as Missouri Health Connection and Kansas Health Information Network, Inc., have already collaborated. With this collection, the Mid-States Consortium of HIOs will try to advocate for “robust forms” of health information exchange (HIE), including query-based HIE. It also is planning to focus on rural areas.
“The members of the Mid-States Consortium are committed to addressing the most difficult data exchange issues confronting health information organizations today,” Jeff Messer, director of outreach and development, Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO), said in a statement. “The Mid-States Consortium of HIOs will provide a venue through which HIOs can negotiate together with vendors and payers for products or services and advocate at the regional and national level for HIO-related issues.”
