We all know that better information – shared among the multiple sectors that possess it – leads to improved patient-centered care. The tough part, of course, is pulling all the necessary data together in ways that are secure and respect the privacy/confidentiality of those involved. A new paper, published at this week’s national Community Information Exchange summit in San Diego, proposes a model for achieving those challenging objectives. The model or variants of it already have been implemented in San Diego, Los Angeles and Sonoma counties in California, and by the Ministry of Social Development in New Zealand. A workshop at the CIE summit did focus on the technical aspects of implementing this model, as well as other designed to achieve the same purpose. The paper was written by Carrie Hoff, Deputy Director of San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency, and Subhankar Sarkar, an IBM Associate Partner and Chief Architect of ConnectWellSanDiego. 

We look forward to discussing the approach and outcomes of the paper with the broader NIC community.

Full paper: ConnectWell San Diego- Information Sharing Model for Health and Human Services Agencies