Iowa Health System this morning announced the launch of HealthNet connect, a high-speed, private data network that will initially connect 28 hospitals throughout Iowa and western Illinois. When it’s fully implemented this summer, the system will be among the first in the nation to be built through a federal Rural Health Care Pilot Program that’s being used to establish 67 similar networks nationwide.

Eleven Iowa Health hospitals, including Blank Children’s Hospital, Iowa Lutheran Hospital and Iowa Methodist Medical Center, will be connected through the network. Other Central Iowa hospitals that will be connected include Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines and Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames. Among some of the smaller rural hospitals that have joined are Greene County Medical Center in Jefferson and Myrtue Memorial Hospital in Harlan.

The system uses a 3,200-mile fiber optic backbone that stretches from Denver to Chicago.

“It’s a dedicated pipeline designed by medical professionals for medical professionals,” said Bill Leaver, Iowa Health System’s CEO. “Our goal is to sign up as many health-care providers as we can that want to be part of it.” The network received funding sufficient to connect 78 users in the first phase.

The 100-megabyte network will be capable of carrying the equivalent of an entire compact disc of data across Iowa every seven seconds, enabling physicians to instantaneously transmit electronic medical records and other patient data to other hospitals, particularly those in rural communities.

The data pipeline will also enable hospitals to connect with specialists, submit insurance claims and share medical research, among other possible uses, officials said.

“It’s a great equalizer for the rural health-care facilities; it allows them to have an equal footing in broadband connections,” said Scott Eberle, president of Fiberutilities Group of Cedar Rapids, Iowa Health’s technology partner in the venture.

The cost of the “last-mile” connections between the hospitals and the network was paid primarily by a $7.8 million grant from the Federal Communications Commission. Mediacom Communications Corp. was the winning bidder to use that federal funding to connect the hospitals to the system. The Iowa Communications Network (ICN) provides the connection for one of the hospitals.

One of Iowa Health’s long-term goals is to connect with other networks in the country, as well as with a separate network the Iowa Hospital Association (IHA) is building, Leaver said. The IHA used a separate FCC grant to establish its own network for hospitals, using the ICN to connect them.

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