From the Control Room to the Boardroom, Building a Better HIE for the Next Decade

By Leo Pak, CEO of Interstella Health Solutions

I have lived both lives inside a Health Information Exchange. As a Chief Technology Officer I spent nights chasing down broken interfaces, trying to make legacy ETL jobs perform miracles. As an Executive Director I spent mornings in board meetings explaining why those same systems slowed down business decisions and created frustration for stakeholders.

That combination of experiences shaped everything about how I built Lynqsys and the Data Refinery as a Service model at Interstella. I created the platform I always wished I had when I was responsible for running both the technology and the organization.

The View from the Technical Side

Old systems were built to move data, not to understand it. They could shuttle millions of messages but offered little confidence in what those messages meant. Every upgrade required complex scripting, and every interface felt like a new science project.

I wanted a platform that could learn, heal, and adapt. Lynqsys is FHIR-native, cloud-based, and built for real-time refinement. It validates, enriches, and organizes data as it flows, so by the time it reaches an analyst, care manager, or algorithm, it is already trustworthy and ready for use.

No more batch cycles that delay insight. No more black-box ETL. The system refines data continuously, improving with every message it touches.

The View from the Leadership Side

Running an HIE is about more than technology. It is about sustainability, accountability, and public trust. Every dollar spent must prove its value to providers, payers, and the community. Every technical choice becomes a business decision.

Executives need systems that strengthen relationships, not strain them. They need confidence that their data tells a consistent story, that their operations scale without chaos, and that compliance is automated rather than manual.

When I built Lynqsys, I designed it to serve both the engineer and the executive. It is a platform that operates efficiently behind the scenes while producing transparency and measurable outcomes for leadership.

Whole Person Intelligence: Seeing the Full Picture

The future of health information exchange is about context. Real health intelligence comes from connecting clinical records with the data that lives beyond the chart: social, behavioral, and environmental factors that define a person’s life.

Through Lynqsys, we can bring together those elements into a single, refined view of the individual and the community. This is what I call Whole Person Intelligence, the ability to synthesize information across physical, behavioral, and social dimensions in real time.

Whole Person Intelligence is not a product. It is a philosophy that guides how we design systems. It allows health networks to recognize the full context of a patient’s journey, improving coordination, forecasting risk, and supporting equitable care.

Trust as the New Currency

AI, analytics, and value-based care all rely on one common ingredient: trustworthy data. Without it, algorithms misfire and dashboards mislead.

The purpose of the Data Refinery as a Service model is simple. Turn messy, fragmented information into clean, traceable, and verifiable assets. Create an ecosystem where every participant sees proof of quality, not promises.

Trust is measurable. We treat it as a metric, not a slogan.

Advice for Fellow HIE Leaders

1. Invest in refinement, not just integration. Moving data is easy. Improving it is transformative.
   

2. Automate governance. Your rules should be embedded in the system, not buried in spreadsheets.
   

3. Prepare for AI by preparing your data. No algorithm can outperform the integrity of its inputs.
   

4. Think of your exchange as a data utility. You are not simply a conduit; you are an engine for community health intelligence.
   

Why It Matters

I built Lynqsys and Interstella because I saw what was missing. Technology should not be the barrier between insight and impact. A modern HIE must combine technical precision with executive vision, allowing leaders to make faster, smarter, and more confident decisions.

The next decade will belong to organizations that understand data as a living asset, not a static repository. Our job is to help them get there.

Leo Pak Chief Executive Officer, Interstella leo@Interstella.us www.Interstella.us