The Great Promise - A Look Ahead To Effective Health Information Exchange

In ten years, health information exchange will be partly down this road. Incentives for health information exchange will be better aligned, but not completely solved. There will be many different types of networks. Some networks will be regionally and state-based. Some networks will be more functionally-based and some will be more consumer-based. This is not just a good bet-hedging approach; it is also the likely progression from the current state, and recognition of the diversity of expectations and desires in different states and different populations. Rarely do policies or developments make all inclusive and sweeping changes in technology. More frequently a multitude of approaches continues to endure. In ten years many of the existing approaches, networks and even software systems will continue to exist, but they will be better integrated and better able to support health and health information exchange outcomes. There are important lessons in this picture for how to approach the short term needs for health information exchange.