Form follows function: Sharing data across sectors to improve health

Health care delivery is undergoing a massive transformation, fueled by information technology, payment reform and expansion beyond traditional clinical medicine.  Integrating data from fields beyond clinical care improves communities’ capacity to plan, monitor, innovate, and respond for health improvement. For example, mapping transportation and public safety data against rates of heart disease may illuminate trends and opportunities for intervention. However, building connected information systems is difficult because of challenges in cross-sector communication, interoperability, privacy and data quality. These challenges affect the public health sector’s ability to realize its potential for collaboration, assessment, planning, implementation, and collective impact to improve population health.  

We will share information on recent research about and current examples of interconnected data systems for health and their connection to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Culture of Health. We will highlight a case example to spotlight  the opportunities and challenges of connected data systems and illustrate how they can serve as the backbone for approaches to improve population health.  We will discuss how partnering with new types of institutions can encourage innovation and lead to best practices within public health as data is connected and better contextualized. Finally, participants will discuss their insights about connected data systems and opportunities to support the growth and innovation of multi-sector system approaches to support their local communities’ Culture of Health.

Learning Areas:

Administration, management, leadership
Communication and informatics
Public health administration or related administration
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines

Learning Objectives:
Describe opportunities and challenges of developing data and information systems that bridge health and health care within a community, city or county. Discuss the value proposition for connecting stakeholders across multiple sectors of health, health care, human services, and sectors not traditionally connected to health data. Identify specific opportunities for data collaboration between the participant’s own organization and other organizations in a multi-sector information sharing and management system environment.

Keyword(s): Health Systems Transformation, Information Technology

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the Co-Director of the project whose research is being presented. I have 25 years of experience in community development, management information systems, and health information and technology.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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