“There’s so much data,” says Joe Coyle, Director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Bureau of Infectious Disease Prevention (BIDP). “The question is, how do we tap into that data and utilize it best? How do we turn big data into information?”
Every day the Michigan Health Information Network (MiHIN), Michigan’s statewide health information exchange infrastructure, receives more than four million Admission, Discharge, Transfer (ADT) messages. Over four million ADT messages per day amounts to an average of 30,191,953 per week. And, ADTs are only one of many sources of health data.
What’s interesting, as Coyle points out, is that “ADT data doesn't exist for the purpose of informing public health, but it's clearly valuable if we can mine and curate that big data for a public health purpose. ADTs aren’t going to tell us everything, but if we can understand the potential uses and limitations, the data can be used as a marker for increasing our understanding of what's going on with a particular condition.”
The work MDHHS and MiHIN have done together to make ADT data useful for public health is a good example of what Coyle believes needs to happen across the public health sector to make big data useful and improve public health response: Automate what can be automated — including collection, aggregation, visualization — so that the healthcare and public health workforce can do the things that require a human touch.
On September 30, 2022, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) released recent guidance surrounding the Information Blocking Rule through a Blog Post on their website.
In their blog post, the ONC stated they would be launching a dedicated webpage toward information blocking, which would be live on October 6. Further, they emphasized that actors under the rule could expect to see “periodic, experience- driven updates” to the rule as time went on.
In addition to these reminders, the ONC has released information on the number of Information Blocking claims that have been brought over the past two years, and what is notable in the HIE space is no claims have been brought against HIEs in 2022. As a reminder, HIEs such as (MIHIN/ VHIEC) have been striving for greater, secure information sharing. We have not only completed a deep dive of the information to make sure our own entity is not engaging in Information Blocking practices, but also released informational packets to help our Stakeholders to comply themselves.
The Sequoia Project, the entity charged with operationalizing the framework for national interoperability titled the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA), has released a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on how Individual Access Service Providers (IAS) and actors under the framework will have to respond to individual requests for information.
MiHIN was able to read through this SOP, which predominantly revolves around identity verification and the best practices IAS Providers must use when they receive requests from individuals. IAS Providers must have a credential service provider (CSP) that is approved by Sequoia Project as the RCE and the identity proofing must meet NIST IAL2 (Identity Assurance Level 2), which is defined under NIST SP800-63A. Additionally, the SOP delves into minimum and additional demographic categories IAS Providers are required and should use respectively.
A Watershed Moment: Recommendations and Insights for the Health Information Profession to Meet the Emerging Needs of the Modern Healthcare Consumer
“There are really important opportunities relative to healthcare and the HI profession. The question needs to be asked: are HI professionals in the back room curating the EHR, or are they on the front end trying to improve the quality and usability of information?”
MiHIN's own Dr. Tim Pletcher, Executive Director, was interviewed by Kaufman Hall, along with an esteemed line up of leaders from across the healthcare ecosystem, to discuss the evolving needs of the modern behavior healthcare consumer and the ways in which the health information (HI) field may evolve to meet those needs.
J&B Medical Becomes a Trusted Data Sharing Organization through MiHIN
MiHIN announced that J&B Medical, a leading family-owned home medical supplies, diabetes, and pharmacy provider has become an official Trusted Data Sharing Organization (TDSO), enabling J&B to exchange clinical and medical supply data throughout Michigan.
J&B Medical will soon be equipped to extend to its Michigan clients the ability to receive notifications when patients visit the emergency department and experience major transitions of care. They will be notified when there are important updates related to immunization and diagnostic tests and, increasingly, when clinical data is collected and reported in the home or on personal devices such as via telehealth or remote monitoring systems.
Looking ahead at the Week of Thanksgiving, our maintenance window will occur 11/22 instead of 11/24 and only include critical changes. Think of critical changes as ‘must have’ vs ‘nice to have’. If there’s a significant business deadline with funding attached that depends on the change, or the change is required to resolve a break/fix issue with a production service, we would typically consider it critical. Things we will delay are new customer onboardings, incremental version updates, standard patches, new features, etc. that can wait.
Please note that effective October 1st, due to the very limited number of after hours incidents for these services, MiHIN will be no longer offer after hours support for HealthConnect (ie:VIPR, Results Delivery, Solution Center, etc.). Please place a helpdesk ticket and we will address your request on the next business day.
MedRec Fallout Conformance Reports
The issue with displaying the MedREc Fallout Conformance Reports has now been resolved.
We are continuing to work on fixing the ADT Fallout Conformance Reports. In the interim, please continue to send your requests for ADT Fallout Reports to the MiHIN Help Desk. We will communicate as soon as the issue is resolved.
If you have any questions about accessing the Lab Conformance Report, please follow up with your Account Manager. Are you unsure of who your Account Manager is? Contact Joanne Jarvi, Senior Director of Outreach & Market Communications at joanne.jarvi@mihin.org.
Call it data liberation day: Patients can now access all their health records digitally
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Stakeholder Convenings
The Download
A monthly webinar diving into the intersection of healthcare and technology.
This month's session focused on "What data has to do with health equity?" We've posted the recording and resources to keep the learning momentum going and continue the conversation.
Chris Bailey, Director of National Engagement and Consumer Health Strategy, MiHIN, will join a panel of colleagues to discuss using technology and care teams to improve maternal/infant health at home and on the go.
Marty Woodruff, COO, MiHIN, will gather with industry thought leaders and changemakers committed to advancing healthcare alongside educational breakout sessions.
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