The HIE market is changing and evolving as fast as any technology in recent history.  Developing HIT strategies that properly integrate health information exchange is a truly challenging task made even trickier given HIE’s unique ability to bridge the digital gap between the acute and ambulatory environments, finally aligning HIT with the real-world care continuum.

As the HIE market’s velocity increases so too does the number of HIE vendors and disparate solutions.  It is therefore critical for those looking to the HIE market for a strategically sound solution to move with purpose while exercising discipline.  To avoid buyer’s remorse, I recommend purchasers incorporate the following basic elements into their HIE selection process.

1. Research.  When researching HIE alternatives, use multiple sources – the typical HIT analysts are challenged to keep up with the rapidly changing and developing HIE marketplace and can represent an incomplete source of potential solutions when considered individually.
2. Peer Assessment.  Talk with peers that have successfully implemented health information exchange – ensure you talk with organizations that represent more than one HIE vendor or HIE model (e.g., centralized, federated, hybrid, etc…). Get their perspective on the business impact of their project, as well as their vendor relationship.
3. Consultative Selling.  Take advantage of HIE vendors’ desire to inform purchasers of the pros and cons of the various HIE models.  Seek to gain an appreciation of the different models in use and their value to your business challenges; do not tolerate mudslinging. 
4. Value Proposition and Competitive Advantage.  With your list of candidate vendors narrowed to four or less, ensure the competing vendors can articulate their value proposition and competitive advantage in a single page.  Vendors that can’t clearly and concisely state their value proposition and competitive advantage may lack an understanding of your business challenges and the impact of their offering.
5. Values.  Ask your candidate vendors what they believe to be the most important aspect to their offering.  Their answer should be consistent with your organization’s objectives, mission, and values; otherwise, your respective priorities will be misaligned.
6. Market Understanding.  Challenge your candidate vendors to articulate their view of the HIE market’s direction and future role in HIT.  Serious HIE vendors that know the market and business will be well aware of market direction, tendencies, Federal agendas, and alternative directions of evolution.
7. References.  A vendor’s ability to perform in the future is best determined by understanding that vendor’s past performance.  While checking vendor references, ask for the entire client list and contact clients without prior notice from the vendor.  If a vendor has to “set up” a reference call, I recommend caution.  Happy clients are generally more than willing to provide positive comments during a cold reference call.  If the reference is busy, an alternative time can be set up for a follow on call.  The vendor should not have to play intermediary during this process.
8. Robustness and Agility. Implementing HIE establishes a foundation for your information flows that support your most important business relationships. In partnering with an HIE vendor, you want to be sure their offering is robust and demonstrably agile.  Such feature traits are critical to support the inevitable evolution of information exchange. Without this robustness and agility, today’s cutting edge gadget can become tomorrow’s stale, unmanageable clunker, jeopardizing your business.

Follow these eight simple steps and you will be able to efficiently select the right HIE vendor for your organization.  With a clear strategy, alignment of values, and an acquired knowledge base, successful implementation is a simple matter of execution.  As Nike says, “Just do it.”