The Institute has been an international leader in the development, implementation, and evaluation of health information technology and health information standards for over three decades.

In April 2006, Rand Corporation report identified Regenstrief Institute Medical Informatics as an internationally recognized healthcare information pioneer, one of four benchmark institutions that collectively were the source of nearly 25% of all published, high-quality, evidence-based research on the impact of information technology on the quality of health. 

The Regenstrief Medical Record System (RMRS) is one of the nation's first electronic medical record systems and the keystone of many Institute activities. Originally implemented and used continuously since 1973, the RMRS serves as the day-to-day electronic medical record system at Wishard Hospital and its community clinics -- the third largest safety-net healthcare system in the U.S.  RMRS data are used heavily for both day-to-day clinical activities, quality improvement programs, and research and development.  Wishard Health Services has been the primary site for Regenstrief's randomized, controlled trials of clinical decision-support interventions.

McDonald CJ, Overhage JM, Tierney WM, et al., "The Regenstrief Medical Record System: a quarter century experience" International Journal of Medical Informatics 1999; 54:225-253.

Indiana Network for Patient Care

In 1988, Regenstrief biomedical informatics research scientists developed one of the first health information exchanges by creating a common clinical data repository for Wishard Hospital and Indiana University Hospital.

Early research by Regenstrief biomedical investigators showed that patients seldom adhere to single healthcare systems.  Safe and effective care requires that data follow patients across organizational boundaries.  In 1988, the Regenstrief Institute began developing one of the first health information exchanges (HIEs) by creating a common clinical data repository for Wishard Hospital and Indiana University Health hospitals in Indianapolis.  In 1990, two more local hospital systems were added, and by 1996, the Indiana Network for Patient Care (INPC) was launched and included all five major hospital networks in Central Indiana.  Since then, the INPC has incorporated more than 70 of the approximately 120 hospitals in Indiana, covering all regions of the state and including more than 4 billion observations for more than 12 million individual patients.  These data are viewed by Web-based applications and used by these physicians and hospitals to coordinate care across institutions; they are also used in retrospective and prospective research projects and are a core resource of the statewide Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute.  Almost 20,000 physicians have joined the INPC to obtain laboratory results and imaging reports.  Being the oldest, largest, and most well-established HIE in the country, the INPC provides Regenstrief with opportunities to create cutting edge innovations for capturing, merging, and managing data to enhance patient care, and opportunities for leadership in setting national policies.

Computerized Provider Order Entry System

In the early 1980s, the Regenstrief Institute launched The Medical Gopher, one of the country's first computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems.  This CPOE has provided healthcare providers with a fast, reliable, networked, and easily-used computer interface to document care, write medical orders, and manage patient care.  The only randomized, controlled trial of hospital-based CPOE ever done was performed when Gopher was implemented at Wishard Hospital.  Serving all Wishard Health Services inpatient and outpatient sites, Gopher is sued to record and transmit information about all inpatient and outpatient orders for all drugs, diagnostic, tests, nursing activities, advance directives, and consultations.  Due to its ubiquitous use in the heart of health care delivery, Gopher is a stable platform for investigating clinical decision support interventions such as reminders and suggestions to adhere to guideline-based preventive care and therapeutics, drug-drug- interactions, clinical monitoring, and improvements in healthcare delivery aimed at improving the quality, efficiency, outcomes and cost-effectiveness of care.  that is used throughout Wishard Memorial Hospital, a number of specialty clinics and in most of IU Medical Group's primary care practices. This system provides a rich platform for studying interventions designed to influence patient care and was the subject of the first randomized controlled trial of physician order entry.