Physcians, hospitals and other providers looking to link into a health information exchange or a regional health information organization now have a buyers' guide to the products on the market, from the University of California Davis Health System's Institute for Population Health Improvement.

The "HIE Ready Buyers Guide" offers providers an assessment of HIE product readiness for exchange between and among different electronic health record (EHR) systems and health information organizations (HIOs). It also offers comparisons of interoperability and interface standards.

Kenneth Kizer, MD, director of the Institute for Population Health Improvement, said that the guide is aimed at increasing transparency into the market and helping better inform providers making investments in new health IT systems.

Kizer said that "even certified EHRs often have limited capacity to share important care-related data with other EHRs, in effect creating electronic information silos." The guide offers providers a window into their options for interface customization and interoperability.

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Produced by the Institute's California Health eQuality program in collaboration with the California Health Information Partnership and Services Organization and state HIE leaders, the guide intends to indentify a baseline of HIE and EHR features and standards used for meaningful exchange today. 

The guide also reports on the relative cost of products and six capabilities: admit, discharge and transfer information and demographics; lab and radiology results and notes; lab and radiology orders; referrals and appointments; care summaries and continuity of care documents (CCD); and public-health reporting.