A New Training Program for the Next Normal

By Daniel Stein This quote from the latest newsletter from the California chapter of the National Association of Social Workers caught my eye: “Public and private programs, agencies and organizations nationwide are preparing to build, rebuild, and grow in 2021 and beyond. And – as the pandemic has demonstrated every day – the need will […]

Value Our Work? Please Support It!

Thousands of professionals across programs, systems and domains regularly engage with the National Interoperability Collaborative for its unique cross-sector resources, webinars, projects and relationships. Hundreds of you, individually or through your organizations, are NIC members. In other words, we have succeeded in building the “community of networks” that we envisioned when we launched the NIC […]

Taking a Deeper Dive: Getting to Yes on Privacy and Confidentiality

By Ivy Pool, Senior Consultant, Stewards of Change Institute In times of shrinking budgets and increasing need, it is imperative that health and human service providers deliver efficient and cost-effective public services. Through the creation of new service delivery models centered on data integration and systems interoperability, providers can to reduce service delivery costs and […]

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 […]

Yes, We Can Share Information, Improve Outcomes AND Protect Privacy!

I’m going to start today with a confession: I am a true believer. Preaching and teaching the value of information-sharing and interoperability to improve health and human services (and thereby people’s lives) is not only my job; it is my passion. So I was honored when the National League of Cities recently asked me to […]

GAO Report on Human Services: Sustained and Coordinated Efforts Could Facilitate Data Sharing While Protecting Privacy

On February 21, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), released a report on the state of data sharing and exchange in state and local government human services agencies and programs.  The report, which is titled Human Services:  Sustained and Coordinated Efforts Could Facilitate Data Sharing While Protecting Privacy,  provides a review of steps the federal government […]

CONFIDENTIALITY: TRUTH OR EXCUSE

This “written thought” is the first of many to come regarding confidentiality and the ability to share information between health and human services systems and organizations. All the reports discuss how systems should work together to avoid duplication, redundancies, and improve outcomes.  When dealing with children, many systems and agencies may be involved:  education, child […]