Information exchanges let doctors share patient data efficiently

As more doctors and hospitals make use of electronic health records, the next step in healthcare's transformation will be to ensure that doctors and other healthcare providers can exchange of patient data. Multifaceted healthcare organizations are setting up internal data exchanges so their affiliated doctors, outpatient facilities, and hospitals can easily share data. But larger health information exchanges are also being launched that let unaffiliated providers within a state or region share patient information. All of these efforts potentially play a role in the federal government's vision of building a national health information network that would serve as a "network of networks."

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