Health Information Exchange: Current Trends, Challenges and Recommendations

Health information exchange (HIE) promises substantial benefits for healthcare professionals and providers but whether it will become widespread and when, if it does so, are unknown. The growing use of information technology has led to the widespread adoption of HIE. Large hospitals and healthcare systems have been at the forefront of implementing HIE, while little is known about the state of adoption and challenges in the implementation of HIE during the adoption. This paper aims to review previous models and frameworks to provide a comprehensive literature study about the challenges and barriers in adopting HIE and provide recommendations that will contribute to the resolution of these issues in large hospitals. A literature review was conducted and identified the issues, challenges and recommendations of HIE adopting. The review gathered documents systematically from different search engines includes Scopus, ScienceDirect, PubMed, Biomed, ACM Digital library and WorldCat. The findings reveal eight factors to be considered as challenges before the adoption take place. Three main recommendations: the use of IT innovations, integration of electronic health records system and increase system capacity are suggested. The recommendations and challenges are highlighted and may foster and promote HIE adoption within country and at international levels.