A literature review on health information exchange (HIE)

Developing a national Health Information Exchange (HIE) for Saudi Arabia has developed into a priority for the Saudi Ministry of Health. In the process of conducting a literature review of existing opportunities and challenges of health information exchange in international hospitals and the possible implications of such studies on Saudi Arabia, an initial search was conducted in April 2015 yielding 31 articles from PubMed, Science Direct and other database using key terms such as: health information exchange, data exchange, health data exchange, data interoperability in health, lessons of data interoperability, opportunities of health information exchange, challenges of data integration, and challenges of data format and ontology. Research studies that were not related to the health care sector, that were not in English, or found not relevant to the purpose of the study were excluded. Only six studies were included in the review. Results show that there are many opportunities and challenges found in the literature which may impact how Saudi Arabia implements the national Health Information Exchange (HIE) strategy. Three primary challenges for HIE were identified including data formatting, semantic ontology, and building the HIE infrastructure. Opportunities for Saudi Arabia in implementing the HIE were also found in the literature such as improving the quality of healthcare services and reducing healthcare costs. Saudi Arabia is advancing in the electronic medical record (EMR) implementation especially with current changes on the level of authority and ministry structure. Building an EMR foundation will make the HIE simpler to implement for the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health.