AHRQ Innovations Exchange

AHRQ’s Health Care Innovations Exchange Focuses on Health Information Exchanges

The latest issue of AHRQ’s Health Care Innovations Exchange features two examples of successful implementation of health information exchanges. One of the featured profiles is the Delaware Health Information Network, which seeks to support health care quality, safety, and efficiency for patients who receive care from Delaware providers. Through the network, clinicians have immediate access to patient-specific laboratory results, radiology reports, and other data that allow them to make informed clinical decisions, improve patient safety, and avoid unnecessary tests. The network delivers more than 10 million clinical results and reports to providers annually and helps member hospitals fulfill all public health reporting requirements by transmitting data directly to a statewide health registry. The system tracks nearly 88 percent of Delaware’s patient population, and is used by 97 percent of Delaware providers. The other featured profile from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy provides interstate access to information about controlled substance prescriptions to help identify cases of misuse. Access more innovation profiles and tools related to health information exchange and to data exchange on the Innovations Exchange Web site, which contains more than 775 searchable innovations and 1,525 Quality Tools.