Mary-Sara Jones, IBM Cross-program data-sharing has been one of the most popular topics at Health and Human Services conferences this year. Many states and counties are exploring different models of collaboration and integration, some focused on improving the client’s ability to engage with government, others on improving the agency’s ability to engage holistically with […]
Category: Bridging Service Silos
The Silicon Valley Regional Data Trust: Putting the Last Word First
With less than two weeks to go before the National Interoperability Collaborative’s first major event – “A Symposium in the NIC of Time: Advancing Information-Sharing in California and Beyond” – we’ve been giving considerable thought to how best to present our work at the Silicon Valley Data Trust (SVRDT) to the symposium’s attendees. The fact […]
Preventing the Next School Shooting: Information-Sharing Could Play a Key Role
There is every reason to believe that keeping guns away from people who are violent and have anti-social tendencies will, at the very least, reduce the number of mass-shooting fatalities. It can be logically concluded that steps like universal background checks would have the desired effect. However much we would all be elated to find […]
Moral Implications of Analytics and Cognitive Computing
As we look forward to the Stewards of Change symposium in a few weeks, I have been thinking about the challenges to using advanced analytics and cognitive computing to strengthen human services programs. Of course, I am not alone. Recently, academic and policy journals have published articles wrestling with the potential moral impact of predictive […]
Ushering in 2017 with an Important Certainty: The Need for Data Sharing and Interoperability
Whatever our individual politics or perspectives, there’s one thing I think everyone can agree on as we begin the New Year: We’re entering a period of disruption in the realm of health and human services (among others). While no one can predict the extent or impact of the changes that will take place, it’s evident […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]