The Indianapolis-based Indiana Health Information Exchange, Inc. (IHIE) has come to an agreement with AT&T to expand the HIE. AT&T’s Healthcare Community Online's Clinical Message Exchange will allow IHIE to connect more hospitals and facilities to its exchange. IHIE says it is doing this to ramp up what it is already the “nation’s largest health information exchange.”

AT&T’s clinical interface integration platform will initially be integrated in three hospitals in IHIE. The organization says it will improve data integration processes within the exchange, and make clinical data available in a highly-secure manner across the entire community of care. Currently, IHIE says it has more than four billion pieces of clinical data in the repository and delivers three million highly-secure health transactions daily.

Currently, there are ten million patients, more than 19,000 physicians, over 80 facilities included in the HIE. However, the HIE has bigger goals. As part of this AT&T deal, IHIE says it is launching a professional services organization to serve regional and state HIEs, and large health systems across the country.

"Our vision is to establish a model of health information exchange for the nation. We operate the most advanced system for connecting disparate healthcare IT systems in the nation, and AT&T is helping us take our efforts to the next level,” Harold J. Apple, president and CEO of IHIE, said in a statement.

IHIE says it will provide planning and advisory services for all aspects of health information exchange, including governance, strategic planning, policy, trust, stakeholder commitment, product delivery and sustainability.