Source. A recently-published report by Harald A. Deutsch, MD, and Fran Turisco of the Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), an IT and business services company headquartered in Falls Church, Va. on EHR and health information exchange (HIE) initiatives suggests that the United States should look at similar efforts in Europe as a guide for its development of large-scale e-health systems.The report paints a bleak historical picture of U.S. e-health initiatives. According to the authors, a review of 145 HIEs implemented in the U.S. found that only 32 of them are still active, while just 20 of those have achieved some level of success. Although the Obama Administration has taken steps toward revamping state and regional e-health efforts with the enactment of the Health IT for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, the authors warned that the complexity involved in eventually implementing a national health information network (NHIN) means it could take many years to accomplish.Europe has been dealing with these issues for more than a decade, and many European countries have been able to implement large-scale e-health initiatives. The European path to e-health system implementation has been varied and can provide some valuable lessons for future U.S. efforts, the authors noted.Kanteron Systems is a European Healthcare IT company with experience implementing EHR and HIE solutions.