The information exchange is planning to launch additional data-exchange services over the next few months, officials said. For example, on Jan. 1, it will begin offering electronic access to medication history. On the same date, a federal regulation takes effect requiring that hospitals obtain a medication history for all patients when they are admitted.

Two of the city's five health care operators have signed up for the service; the others have expressed interest, Overhage said.

During the first half of next year, IHIE plans to launch a new "pay for performance" service to be built using the EMR system.

The IHIE's IT development arm, Indiana University's Regenstrief Institute Inc., is building decision-support software to run on top of the EMR database to add claims data from local insurance companies for specific doctors.

Subsequently, the system will be updated to measure the diagnoses and prescriptions physicians make against national standards. Physicians who meet those standards can be eligible to receive a higher level of reimbursement from the insurance companies that have agreed to participate in the program, Overhage said. Insurance companies covering 80 percent of the population in the Indianapolis market have agreed to participate, he added.