Site Launched To Help Others Build Health Infrastructure

The Foundation for E-Health Initiative has launched a site for communities interested in creating the infrastructure to electronically exchange health information.

Much of the technical, clinical, financial, and legal information contained on the site comes from other community health-care providers and organizations that already have built their own framework for sharing clinical and health-related financial data.

The Community Learning Network "is a repository of knowledge on how national experts and communities have dealt with the challenges of building infrastructures to electronically mobilize and share health data," says Janet Marchibroda, CEO of eHealth Initiative.

Resource contributors include Regenstrief Institute, which several years ago created an exchange at which Indiana physicians share clinical information, and the New England Healthcare EDI Network, a consortium of 20 health companies and payers that have built an infrastructure for electronic administrative processes.

The resource center includes a forum for "monitored dialogue" between physicians, hospitals, policy-makers, and researchers, Marchibroda says.

Backers plan to include resource information from around the planet so that visitors to the site from the United States can gain from overseas experience. The United Kingdom, for instance, is expected to contribute resources based on its experiences building its nationwide infrastructure, Marchibroda says.

The nonprofit foundation works to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of health care through information sharing and information technology.