Using a federated and de-centralized web-based architecture, Clalit Health Services and Israeli software company, dbMotion, created an enterprise-wide system able to query asynchronously the entire set of local repositories, integrate the responses and present the caregiver with a unified, integrated “Virtual Patient Record” for viewing only, all within seconds. The system was later extended by Clalit to include large competitor medical centers to create a Regional Health Information Organization and Health Information Exchange.
Medical information sharing is an organizational norm throughout Clalit Health Services. For other organizations considering establishing a Medical Information Sharing Network there now exists a reference project that has been operational long enough to be judged success or failure.