To assist public health organizations better understand and use health information exchange, HIMSS and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) have collaborated to produce the Public Health & HIE Toolkit.
The toolkit was developed to help public health departments understand:
- what health information exchange (HIE) services are and what types of organizations providing them;
- how a health department might use or support such services; and
- how to assess whether the value of participating in HIE will be worthwhile.
An inforgaphic of how HIE and public health fit together is here.
“The Public Health & HIE Toolkit is the first of its kind, created to help users identify and put into context many of the HIE concepts, technologies and practices that will be important in the decision-making process when choosing their HIE solution,” according to Joyce Sensmeier, R.N., vice president, Informatics, HIMSS, in a prepared statement.
Created to help orient HIE organizations (HIOs) to the functions of health departments, the Public Health & HIE Toolkit also explains the value of HIOs as customers and partners in HIE. The HIE Toolkit for Public Health was authored by Seth Foldy, M.D. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also supported the project.
“Health information exchange is a critical technology for public health,” says Foldy. “The toolkit acknowledges current flux in HIE technology and business models, and is designed to help health departments make sensible business decisions over time.”
