Regenstrief licensing network, software system to new for-profit subsidiary of IHIE

The Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis has agreed to license its Indiana Network for Patient Care and DOCS4DOCS clinical results delivery software to a new for-profit subsidiary of the Indiana Health Information Exchange.

The INPC, which was created by Regenstrief Institute's Center for Biomedical Informatics, processes, on average, more than 1 million secure transactions of clinical data each day in a standardized, electronic format. Data includes medical histories, laboratory test results, medication records and treatment reports used by 94 hospitals and more than 25,000 physicians.

More than 75% of hospitals in Indiana are members of the INPC. When a patient visits a hospital that is part of the network, providers are able to access a patient's complete medical history from other INPC members as if it were one single virtual medical record. The new licensing agreement will allow for growth of this network to occur outside of Indiana's borders.

“With exclusive use of the INPC software, IHIE will be well-equipped to leverage their efforts and expand beyond Indiana,” Dr. Shaun Grannis, associate professor of family medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine, said in a news release.

“IHIE's nonprofit charter supports in-state efforts,” according to the release. “To fully realize the potential of the INPC and DOCS4DOCS software platforms, IHIE has formed a for-profit subsidiary company to expand the use of the technology beyond state borders. Regenstrief will continue to conduct research using data from Indiana sources. The subsidiary may be able to use discoveries resulting from this research for commercial application purposes, creating a cycle of discovery, innovation and growth.”

Molly Butters, director of marketing and communications at the IHIE said that member hospitals already pay to be a part of the exchange network, and that as it expands outside of Indiana, participants–hospitals, employers, payers–will continue to pay to be members of the exchange. The new for-profit subsidiary of IHIE will be run by current IHIE staff, along with some new additions, but will largely look and feel like the existing IHIE with a similar structure and payment model.

According to Butters, when IHIE was created, it was done so as a not-for-profit with a charter that only concerned the state of Indiana. In order to expand outside of the state, the organization needed to create a new entity that didn't have the Indiana-only stipulation.

“The overall goal of both Regenstrief and IHIE is for a patient's electronic information to follow wherever that patient goes for healthcare,” Dr. William Tierney, president and CEO of the Regenstrief Institute, said in the release.

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