Open Health Information Exchange (OpenHIE)

Why it matters

A national health information system is not one product. It is a set of registries, records and reporting tools that must agree on who a patient is, where care happened and what was done. OpenHIE gives ministries a shared pattern for those parts, so procurement can specify how each system connects rather than buy one system to do everything.

Key points

• The architecture specification is intended as a pattern for the key components of a health information exchange, reflecting the consensus of its Architecture Review Board [1].
• It names IHE profiles as the building blocks of its data exchange workflows, with FHIR resources as part of the standards picture [1].
• Components include registries for clients, facilities, health workers and terminology, a shared health record, a health management information system and an interoperability layer [2].
• The shared health record supports three exchanges: querying a patient's previous encounters, providing data to the record, and requesting a document on demand [3].

In Moana

Moana serves as the point of service system and shared patient record within an OpenHIE style architecture, exchanging data through FHIR R4 and reporting aggregates to the national HMIS.

Sources

1. OpenHIE Architecture Specification, OpenHIE, accessed 2026
2. OpenHIE architecture specification: component specifications, OpenHIE, accessed 2026
3. OpenHIE Architecture Specification: shared health record, OpenHIE, accessed 2026