Resource Center

Your Virtual Library

Our Resource Center is a virtual library where you can go for a broad range of information relating to interoperability, information-sharing, and the six domains in which NIC primarily works: human and social services, public health, public education, public safety, emergency medical services and health information technology. We have vetted and aggregated numerous studies, guidance documents and other materials, which can be sorted in a variety of ways for easy access and use, and will add resources continually over time. The Resource Center is available to all professionals interested in the subject matter, irrespective of whether they are NIC participants.

To make the Center as robust and beneficial as possible, we welcome recommendations of relevant content that users encounter elsewhere, that they have produced themselves, or that they are already utilizing. Please provide your suggestions and comments via email to NIC@stewardsofchange.org.

11-15-2021 Featured Project

National Commission to Transform Public Health Data Systems

This paper explains the Commission, the foundational white papers, defines terms, describes the Commission approach, and outlines the guiding principles of a modern, equity-oriented public health data system and what that system does. This includes a brief summary of past and present data modernization initiatives.

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11-15-2021 Featured Project

Charting a Course for an Equity-Centered Data System: Recommendations from the National Commission to Transform Public Health Data Systems

The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the gaps in our public health and health data infrastructure and illuminated the many ways in which they perpetuate vast health inequities. To work toward a modernized health data system, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation established a first-of-its-kind National Commission to Transform Public Health Data Systems to reimagine how data are collected, shared, and used, and identify the investments needed to improve health equity. Commissioners examined both the systems and the data needed to ensure public health information works for all, including: who the data we collect elevates, who is being centered in our data, who is being excluded, and why.  

The Commission’s recommendations for the nation call on government at all levels, business, community-based organizations, philanthropy, and others to take specific action to reimagine and modernize the public health data system.

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02-06-2019 Brief

Identifying the Next Drug Epidemic by Testing Municipal Wastewater (In Focus Brief)

“Opioid misuse continues to rise across the United States. One reason for the ongoing epidemic is the difficulty in obtaining real-time information on an ever-changing landscape of drug supply and demand….To address the breadth and complexity of substance abuse, a more comprehensive monitoring strategy is necessary— one that goes beyond siloed approaches focused on individual drugs or interventions. Municipal wastewater testing is an innovative approach that can augment existing data by providing more rapid, cost-effective, and unbiased measures of drug use.”

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02-06-2019 Report

Evidence-Based Strategies for Preventing Opioid Overdose: What’s Working in the United States, An introduction for public heath, law enforcement, local organizations, and others striving to serve their community

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention presents this document to assist people from various sectors in understanding and navigating strategies to prevent opioid overdose within their communities. Successful evidence-based practices, that have been used in U.S states and municipalities, serve as examples of how strategies can be put into practice. The combinations of evidence, expertise and community dialogue are needed for effective prevention strategies across the U.S.

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02-06-2019 Brief

What Makes an Early Childhood Medicaid Partnership Work? Insights from Three Cross-Sector Collaborations

As part of the Medicaid Early Childhood Innovation Lab, led by the Center for Health Care strategies (CHCS), CHCS assisted 6 pilot sites as part of a national initiative to support young children and their families- through interventions in physical health, mental health and social determinants of health. The goal of this Medicaid-driven strategy is to improve future population health by supporting early childhood interventions and addressing whole family units through breaking down siloes and working together.

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02-06-2019 Brief

Get the Facts: Odds of Dying

“For the first time on record, your odds of dying from an accidental opioid overdose are greater than dying in a motor vehicle crash.” As of 2017, opioid overdose is in 5th place for causes of death in United States after: heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, and suicide.

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12-19-2018 Report

Improving the lives of young children through data: Lessons learned from three early care and education data integration projects

In an effort to inform policies that influence the lives of children and families, three states -Minnesota, Mississippi, Rhode Island- are highligthed in their work to integrate education, health and/or social service data. This information can be used to shape services and to identify gaps within them, in order to make services more effective and efficient.

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