The New Jersey Department of Health has awarded a $1 million grant to help expand a burgeoning health information exchange in southern New Jersey, called NJSHINE.

The fifth health HIE in the state, NJSHINE will cover seven southern New Jersey counties and will connect seven hospitals, 22 practices and dozens of smaller clinics and long-term care facilities.

NJSHINE initially started in 2009, as an HIE between South Jersey Healthcare, Shore Medical Center and Cape Regional Medical Center. Now the goal is to expand HIE capabilities and participating organizations, and to link with other HIEs in the state.

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The first phase of the expansion includes inpatient and outpatient lab results between four providers, and the second phase will include radiology results.

“We've been working for the last three months on putting the system in place, prior to receiving grant money,” Robert Mizia, director of information services at Underwood Memorial Hospital, the fourth provider joining the current expansion, told the South Jersey Times. “I know Underwood is in the process of finishing up our testing and sending our data to NJSHINE, and I know South Jersey is populating their database. I would anticipate within the next three months we'll be able to start sharing that data."