Blog

The Battle Has Begun, but Much More is Needed to Defeat the Opioid Crisis

I’ll start this ‘Yikes Summer is Almost Over’ blog with a bit of good news: While many of us were on vacation during the last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services initiated the process of distributing $53 million to 44 states, four tribes and Washington, D.C., to combat the nation’s opioid-heroin epidemic. […]

Our 11th National Symposium, the Opioid Epidemic . . . and an Opportunity for Progress

One of the big lessons learned in the aftermath of 9/11 was that the agencies, departments and even individual officials of government couldn’t operate optimally because, in simple terms, they were working in silos and therefore weren’t able to communicate with each other. In a commendable response to that reality, politicians mainly put aside their […]

Advancing Quickly at a Glacial Pace … and More Musings as Stewards’ 11th Annual Symposium Begins

The world in which Stewards of Change Institute operates – populated by concepts like information-sharing, interoperability, social determinants of health and, most recently, cognitive computing – is changing fast. I know that because I’ve watched the change happen, ever so slowly, for over a decade. Fast and slow simultaneously? Absolutely. The technology and much of […]

The Rising Opioid Abuse Epidemic

As the 11th annual Stewards of Change National Symposium is fast approaching, I have been pondering how states might be able to address one of the fastest growing and troubling outbreaks in this country: the rising opioid abuse epidemic.   Simply reflect on this statistic. In 2014, there were one and a half times more drug […]

Better sharing of data among UK government agencies seeks to protect vulnerable citizens

In the United Kingdom, multi-agency collaboration (MAC) – the sharing of information and resources between agencies – promises to ensure that a clearer picture is drawn to help at-risk citizens. Currently, no single person or agency has quick, easy access to information across agencies. While they and other interested parties – police officers, social workers, […]

Are we at the point of a fundamental change in the role of IT in Human Services?

I’ve been working now for some 27 years in Human Services in -roles mostly related to the advanced use of IT by the business.  I was there through client server mainframe replacement in the early 90’s, business intelligence in the late 90’s, the Internet in the 00’s, composite applications and SOA in the late 00’s […]

The Quest for the HHS “Golden Record”

The Affordable Care Act has added some 20 million to the list of the now insured and spurred a drive for innovation to finally crack the code on bureaucratic delivery inefficiencies, quality and cost. Annual healthcare spending was $3.8 trillion and human services spending was $1.02 trillion in 2014, yet the U.S. healthcare system is […]

Looking for Answers: From the Opioid Crisis . . . to a Network of Networks . . . to a New Curriculum

Open data, information-sharing, data standards and interoperability may not be the answers to every question, but there’s no doubt that they are pivotal components in addressing many challenges confronting the health and human services field. And the latest – and most urgent example to buttress this point is the exploding opioid/heroin epidemic sweeping the country. […]