A discussion is underway this week about how to share patient information across state lines. The goal of one Arizona-based medical technology company is to take its program nationwide:

Melissa Kotrys is CEO of Health Current, formerly Arizona Healthy Connections. Kotrys said health information exchanges are looking to share patient ZIP codes through a nationwide program as a conduit to route medical documents back to primary providers in that location.

"If I were to visit Utah and I was skiing and broke my leg and I showed up in an emergency department there, because that hospital is connected to the health information exchange, it would know that my ZIP code is an Arizona ZIP code,” Kotrys said.

The goal is to eventually make it possible for patients in Arizona to have their information shared when they visit a doctor while traveling.

Kotrys said sharing information across Western states is the first step, then across the country.

“We were the first pilot last year to go live on this program," Kotrys said. There’s two other programs, one between Oklahoma and Arkansas and one in the central area of the U.S. that involves seven different health information exchanges."

Kotrys said 50 health information exchanges across the country cover information of 150 million patients. The Arizona exchange covers 8 million patients.