Considering an Enterprise HIE

Marc Willard is the chief executive officer of Certify Data Systems, and here he discusses private health information exchanges compared to public, state-driven ones.

When Willard joined Certify, he looked into other health information exchanges around the world including the UK health system, using it as a case study of a large, centralized HIE. In the UK, the National Health Service ran a national health system, which hadn’t been very successful after starting and stopping for years.

The UK system was important to study, Williard believed, because most people viewed the model as “being somewhat progressive.” But, after studing the public system in the UK, Willard felt like HIEs in North America could be run differently rather than doing the same thing and making the same mistakes.

Although Willard believes that the divide between state-driven and private HIEs will continue, that doesn’t mean he’s doesn’t believe in public HIEs.

“I believe in sharing information,” he says. “I just think the [return on investment] for most members [in public HIEs] weren’t there.”

Overall, Willard has high hopes going forward for HIEs.

“I think 2012 is gonna be a great year for health information exchange,” Willard says. “I think the market is maturing a lot … I think the health systems are really starting to embrace it."