The Kansas Health Information Network is claiming the title as the first state health information exchange to connect directly with BioSense, the national syndromic surveillance reporting and communications network.

"Kansas' digital health information exchange is the first to connect and feed data to the national disease outbreak surveillance system," according to a statement on the exchange's website. The exchange attributed recognition of its first-in-the-nation status to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which runs BioSense.

BioSense is a program of nationwide data collection and reporting created in 2003 and authorized by the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act. Its goal is to track health problems as they evolve and provide "public health officials with the data, information and tools they need to better prepare for and coordinate responses to safeguard and improve the health of the American people," according to a CDC program description.

The KHI News Service, an affiliate of the not-for-profit Kansas Health Institute, reported that 10 member hospitals can now send data to BioSense through the exchange.