Findings from the 2022 Yearbook Section on Health Information Exchange

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Medical Informatics
• Digital Health

Background:

• Health Information Exchange (HIE) adoption is growing, mirroring the trajectory of Electronic Health Records (EHRs).
• Early HIE research focused on technical deployment and implementation barriers.
• Current research is shifting towards the utilization of data within HIE systems.

Approach:

• A systematic literature review identified key papers published in 2021 concerning HIE.
• Bibliographic databases were searched using MeSH headings and keywords.
• A panel of section editors and external reviewers selected the top 15 HIE papers.

Key Points:

• Major themes included HIE development, implementation challenges, and facilitators.
• Outcomes of HIE use encompass improvements in patient care and data availability for research.
• HIEs are maturing, with research evolving from implementation to data utilization.

Conclusions:

• HIE development parallels EHR growth, moving from technical to data utilization research.
• While implementation barriers remain a focus, research on HIE data potential is emerging.
• Increased HIE adoption will drive further research into leveraging collected longitudinal and diverse data.