| The Philadelphia Health Information Exchange | | | | enabling interoperability across many different |
| Overview | | | | legacy systems. Initial participants include: |
| The Philadelphia Health Information Exchange | | | | * The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania |
| (PHIE), the nation's first diagnostic imaging | | | | * Thomas Jefferson University Hospital |
| exchange was launched in 2003. The network links | | | | * Albert Einstein Medical Center |
| healthcare providers in one of the largest and | | | | * Children's Hospital of Philadelphia |
| most demanding US healthcare markets | | | | * Presbyterian Medical Center |
| encompassing some 4 million patients, 55 hospitals | | | | * Pennsylvania Hospital |
| and 30 competing health systems. | | | | * UPHS Community Radiology |
| In linking unaffiliated, even competing, medical | | | | * Philadelphia Department of Public Health |
| facilities together, the PHIE enables the private, | | | | Expansion to additional data providers and clinical |
| secure and seamless movement of patient digital | | | | users continues on a daily basis. |
| medical records to speed and improve care | | | | Usage |
| across the region. | | | | To date, the exchange enables physicians at |
| The exchange is based on Hx Technologies' | | | | participating facilities to securely access some 5 |
| patent-pending iHistory® platform. iHistory | | | | million imaging studies (which represents over 200 |
| features a distributed ("federated" or | | | | million total images) across 300,000 unique |
| "peer-to-peer") architecture, a design that is | | | | patients. |
| optimized for collaboration among competing | | | | The PHIE effort has dual clinical and research |
| enterprises and capable of interoperability with | | | | tracks. On the clinical side, the exchange supports |
| other regional exchanges and the anticipated | | | | collaborations on patients shared between |
| nationwide health information network (NHIN). | | | | disparate organizations across departments |
| The PHIE has focused initially on the sharing of | | | | including radiology, neurosurgery, fetal surgery, |
| diagnostic imaging data (both images and reports) | | | | plastic surgery, neonatology, neurology, and |
| with expansion to other clinical domains slated for | | | | obstetrics and gynecology. On the research side, |
| later expansion. | | | | investigators from participating sites and Hx |
| Scope and Expansion | | | | Technologies are evaluating the impact of health |
| PHIE currently connects patient medical | | | | information exchange along financial and clinical |
| information across multiple disparate institutions, | | | | dimensions. |