Latest blog by Daniel Stein

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), as most readers of this blog probably know, is a significant driver of progress for our nation’s health system. So Stewards of Change Institute (SOCI) is delighted and honored that ONC has invited us to participate in its online 2021 Tech Forum, which is a showcase for ideas, insights and innovations for advancing health technology to improve patient care, health equity, data exchange and interoperability.

SOCI’s focus at the event will be our Consent Service Utility (CSU), which we have been developing throughout this year with several partners and dozens of subject matter experts from across the country. CSU is a systems-change approach to modernizing the processes by which individuals (patients, consumers, clients, etc.) allow or deny the exchange of their personal information across programs, sectors and domains such as healthcare, behavioral health, education, housing, probation and other social factors that greatly impact everyone’s health and well-being.

Project Unify Webinar

This demo was created for a Project Unify user story in which a client, Sarah Thomson, is scheduled to check into a homeless rehab facility and is required to take a COVID survey. Having exercised her 42 CFR Part 2 rights to not share her substance use disorder with anyone, including her primary care provider, the problem is how to alert the rehab center of her potential COVID infection without revealing her substance use disorder. The Community Infectious Disease Alerts Service is used to aggregate her rehabilitation community with many other communities to share (subscription) her COVID status (with appropriate consent) without compromising her sensitive information.

Opioid Use Disorder Playbook  

Overshadowed by the Covid-19 pandemic, another public health crisis continued to grow in our country last year. Indeed, drug overdose deaths in the U.S. rose by almost 30% in 2020, hitting the highest number (93,000) ever recorded, according to data recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The opioid epidemic has long been a concern – and a priority – for the National Interoperability Collaborative, which is what led us to produce the NIC Opioid Use Disorder Prevention Playbook. This unique publication shines a spotlight on the critical role that prevention should play in addressing the epidemic, including strategies, or “plays,” that communities can replicate or adapt for real-time use. The playbook derives from the efforts by practitioners, researchers and policy-makers to “get upstream” of this national disaster, in addition to providing treatment and saving lives.

National Action Agenda Symposium

Almost 200 people attended our National Action Agenda Symposium on January 25-26. Its focus included the six action recommendations devised by subject matter experts nationwide during the past year, along with a preview of how work will begin at our first implementation site in the months ahead.

The agenda was chock-full of important sessions led by world-class presenters, with a high level of engagement by attendees over the event’s two days. Please take a look at the “flipbook” program, speaker bios, action recommendations, recordings, and other information from this unique, interactive event. Learn more >>