HealthInfoNet, the nonprofit organization managing the Health Information Exchange (HIE) for the State of Maine, announced Monday that it will partner with Health Language, Inc. (HLI) as it transitions from a two-year demonstration project to a full statewide HIE implementation.

According to Devore S. Culver, CEO of HealthInfoNet, more than half of Maine's residents already have medical information in the HealthInfoNet clinical repository along with more than 1,100 clinicians from 15 participating hospitals and physician practices accessing the system.

Health Language will support the Maine HIE's clinical content integration strategy during the HIE's expansion, Culver said.

HealthInfoNet's transition toward a full statewide HIE will include the remaining 24 Maine hospitals and increased connectivity with ambulatory practices and others, he said.

HealthInfoNet will leverage HLI's Language Engine to integrate and manage the latest medical terminologies within healthcare applications accessible to clinicians on the Maine HIE. This will enable interoperable use of accurate medical data, administrative codes, and consumer-friendly terminology. HLI's Language Engine provides access to current versions of more than 100 clinical and administrative code sets, including SNOMED CT, ICD-9 and ICD-10, LOINC, CPT, RxNorm, HCPCS and others, and allows incorporation and mapping of local content to standards, according to Culver.

"Health Language has distinguished itself as a global I.T. leader that supports clinically integrated HIEs," Culver said. "Their robust content and toolset solution provides the flexibility necessary to handle our own content mapping and offers a distinct advantage to expand the health information exchange to all Maine health care providers."

HealthInfoNet found that HLI's international expertise and non-proprietary toolset would allow the greatest degree of flexibility for expansion as the Maine HIE moves out of the pilot phase and into statewide operation, Culver added.

"As part of our due diligence we spoke to national HIE administrators. Their praise of Health Language's excellent customer service influenced and validated our partnership decision," said Todd Rogow, director of project management for HealthInfoNet.

"Maine's HealthInfoNet has set the standard for achieving HIE sustainability,"said Health Language CEO George Schwend. "We are proud of their confidence in us to help them expand to full statewide coverage as they continually improve the quality of patient care and clinician access to data, and demonstrate meaningful use criteria. This is a true opportunity to proactively act on our shared vision of a nationally connected, secure network for clinical document exchange."