Yvonne Hughes, CEO of Coastal Connect Health Information Exchange, is a finalist for Modern Healthcare magazine's 2014 Community Leadership Award, her company announced in a recent news release.

The award, according to the magazine’s website, recognizes health care industry leaders who “go above and beyond commitments central to their roles, reaching out to support causes that may be wholly unrelated to healthcare, but which build and sustain strong communities and the quality of life within them."

Hughes has been on a mission to enable all health care providers in the area to share electronic health  records (EHR) for the benefit of patients and providers and to lower costs to the health care system, the release stated. While many health care providers do use EHRs, there is not a seamless network of information.

To address the problem, Hughes in 2011 led efforts to launch the information exchange that connects affiliated and unaffiliated health care providers in parts of North and South Carolina through EHRs, according to the release.