In the world of Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), as with many other challenges in Healthcare IT, the regulations are constantly changing, and it can be hard for providers to keep up.

Let's take a look at state HIEs in particular. Many states are enacting legislation that will require connection to the state HIE. Do you know if your state is one of them?

Here's one example. The state of New York recently adopted the SHIN-NY regulation which, according to the April issue of the SHIN-NY Spotlight, "This regulation provides guidance on how SHIN-NY is operated. Additionally, the policy directs all Article 28 hospitals to connect to the Statewide Health Information Network for New York (SHIN-NY) on or before March 2017 and other regulated facilities in New York to connect by March 2018."

Connecting to an HIE and achieving true Interoperability are challenges CIOs face on a daily basis. This is evident based on the number of industry publications that cover this topic almost every day. It’s because the challenge of sharing patient data across disparate systems, and achieving interoperability, are very difficult things to accomplish. And every hospital’s situation is different, which contributes to the complexity.

Population Health is top of mind for most healthcare IT leaders right now. Have you made moves to migrate your healthcare IT systems, or implement processes to help you with Population Health Management? If not, most likely, you are at least thinking about it, or doing some research on it.

I attended HIMSS15 in Chicago in April and one of the key themes being discussed was population health. This is the ultimate goal for hospitals and healthcare providers; using interoperability and connecting communities to share data to be analyzed for the benefit of the population (ie. patients).