NIC is working with Healthcare Information Management and System Society (which is an inaugural partner of NIC) to support a new initiative called “Building Community-Based Solutions to Connect the Continuum of Care during Health Crises and Emergency Events.” HIMSS concluded such an approach is needed based on an environmental scan that showed many IT systems, electronic data and exchange capabilities exist within communities that could be brought to bear in preventing, detecting and effectively responding to health-related crises – but few, if any, have inventoried their health-related IT systems, nor have they created collaborative efforts to optimally leverage those systems to meet their public and population-health needs. That is the void this project aims to fill.
Stewards of Change Institute (SOCI), which is co-leading NIC along with AcademyHealth, has worked with HIMSS for several years to find innovative approaches for dealing more systemically with the nation’s opioid epidemic, natural disasters and other health-related emergencies. Most recently, SOCI wrote a research-based paper titled “Building Community-Based Solutions to Address Public Health Crises that serves as a precursor to and helps inform HIMSS’ new initiative. Read the SOCI-HIMSS paper here.