Health Information Exchange And The Health Care Field

Health information exchange has become a very important part of today’s health care field. It is used every day, in almost every part of the medical field. Electronic medical records, digital imaging, e-mails, and fax are all used daily. Health information exchange has moved forward the health care field and helped medical professionals give their patients faster, more efficient and safer care day to day. In this paper, you will read about the history of the health information exchange, the benefits, the privacy and security concerns, and the current challenges faced by the workers in the health information field. History of HIE According to HRSA (2015), â€Å"Health information exchange (HIE) is the electronic movement of health-related†¦show more content†¦While many people believe that health information exchange is a relatively new thing, it has been around for over four decades. However, in the beginning phases it was nowhere near as complex as it is now. Sometime in the middle of the 60’s, an early form of a data processing system was formed and it focuses on clinical data management. This system began to catch on even though they were nowhere near as sophisticated and or functional as the health records in today’s time. In 1972, at the Regenstrief Institute the first medical record system was created as â€Å"a modular system to provide service functions for clinics, laboratory, radiology, and pharmacy† (Structure, Functions, and Activities of a Research Support Informatics Section, 2003). This was a pilot project in a diabetes clinic and not something they thought would change the face of health information forever. However, when it was first made it was not attractive to many doctors due to the high cost but was used mostly by government hospitals since they had the funds to use them. To this day, the most comprehensive medical records system could be found in the Regenstrief Medical Records System based in Indianapolis. This records system is mostly in thanks to Clement McDonald, who is the director of the Regenstrief Institute. In 1991, the Institute of Medicine stated that by the year 2000, it would be smart for