The Institute for Population Health Improvement, part of UC Davis Health System, released its HIE Ready Buyers' Guide, which is designed to help physicians, hospitals and other providers make informed choices in planning for health information exchange.

The guide allows purchasers to make side-by-side comparisons of health information exchange features based on commonly accepted interoperability and interface standards embedded in the EHRs sold by vendors in the guide, according to a news release.

"Notwithstanding the improved information flow that an electronic health record makes possible within a hospital or medical practice, even certified EHRs often have limited capacity to share important care-related data with other EHRs, in effect creating electronic information silos," said Dr. Kenneth Kizer, a distinguished professor at the UC Davis School of Medicine and the IPHI's director.

The guide is consistent with Stage 1 meaningful-use criteria and the EHR certification criteria of the federal Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT's Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies, according to the release. It also will be consistent with Stage 2 meaningful-use and 2014 ONC-ATCB certification criteria. The report includes relative costs.

The guide was produced by the institute's California Health Equality program with the California Health Information Partnership and Services Organization and state HIE leaders, according to the release.