Leadership Forum

State-level HIE Roles and Functions
Across diverse stakeholders, the link between HIE and improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care is being recognized. This requires a system-wide approach, making sure that effective health information is available when and where it is needed as part of a framework for HIE and health care transformation – part of achieving broad statewide goals to improve health and health care.
The Project focuses on what is required at the state level to build components of a health information system that will help achieve statewide goals for improving health and health care. The Project’s research and analysis reveals that state-level HIE initiatives evolve through various stages of development.
However, state-level HIE roles and organizational structures are coalescing around two major roles:
Governance: A primary role to convene healthcare stakeholders, promote collaboration and consensus development to coordinate policies and procedures to secure data sharing, and lead and oversee statewide HIE
Technical Operations: An optional and variable role in the management and operation of the technical infrastructure, services, and/or applications to support statewide HIE
These are distinct state-level HIE functions are key to making sure that HIE develops statewide to serve the public good.

Beginning in 2006, the State-Level HIE Consensus Project (SLHIE Project) convened a steering committee of 13 states to explore the developing roles, characteristics and challenges to achieve statewide HIE. In 2008, the SLHIE Project established the State-Level HIE Leadership Forum (Leadership Forum) as a way to broaden engagement among the growing number of public-private HIE efforts being organized across states.

The previous Leadership Forum made significant contributions to the growing body of knowledge about strategies and actions for implementing the five domains of statewide HIE: governance, finance, technical infrastructure, business and technical operations, legal/policy.

Participants in the Leadership Forum

The Forum includes identified HIT Coordinators and leaders of state designated entities or state-designated like entities under contract or other designation by state government who have responsibilities for state planning and implementation under the ONC’s State HIE Program.

The Forum  and the State HIE Program

Moving forward, the Leadership Forum will provide essential peer supports for states in different stages of development to facilitate their achievement of the HIE milestones and impacts envisioned in HITECH and the State HIE Program. Leadership Forum participants will have opportunities to convene, participate in webinars and other educational offerings, contribute to and benefit from ongoing research, analysis and deliberations on emerging best practices.

Most importantly, through events and the interactive website, Leadership Forum members will have the opportunity to network, discuss and share in learning and consensus building as a community across states and statewide HIE initiatives.