March 26-28 2018
  • West Sacramento, CA
  • SOC Institute Team

A Symposium in The NIC of Time

Advancing Information-Sharing in California and Beyond

The National Interoperability Collaborative’s first major event – A Symposium in the NIC of Time: Advancing Information-Sharing in California and Beyond – took place at the West Sacramento Civic Center on March 26-27, 2018. The invitation-only symposium was underwritten by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and was sponsored by NIC’s leadership team, Stewards of Change Institute and AcademyHealth, in partnership with the California Health and Human Services Agency and the Silicon Valley Regional Data Trust (SVRDT).

Resources have been posted – check the Session Matrix below for slides, murals and video!

The 140 attendees heard about pioneering interoperability efforts across California, where NIC is building its initial statewide collaborative network, and in our other partner states (Connecticut and Virginia). Among the highlights of the event was an ambitious multi-county, multi-domain information-sharing project currently being conducted by SVRDT, as well as innovative initiatives in San Diego, San Francisco and other project sites.

Symposium participants were also connected to key programmatic and thought leaders from across the country – and learned about leading-edge activities, concepts, tools, and best practices – from across the six domains in which NIC primarily works to improve health and well-being by enhancing/advancing efficiency, interoperability goals, and most importantly, outcomes. Those six domains are: human and social services, public health, public education, public safety, emergency medical services, and health information technology.

Please click the images below to access the symposium agenda and the full-scale versions of the 24-foot graphic murals captured at the event. In the Session Matrix below, you’ll find  videos of the main sessions, excerpted graphic murals, PowerPoint presentations, documents distributed to attendees, output from interactive activities at the event, and other relevant materials. 

One of NIC’s distinguishing characteristics is its focus on cross-sector collaboration and learning across the six domains. Lessons learned in one area too often aren’t shared with any others, so organizations are forced to reinvent repeatedly or, worse, to make the same mistakes. Solving 21st century problems requires a multidisciplinary approach to incorporate all the factors that impact health, safety, and well-being. While valuable learning and networking around these issues occurred at the symposium, NIC also plans to synthesize the event’s output and publish a e-magazine soon, which we will disseminate broadly across the U.S.

We are very grateful to the organizations that have enabled NIC to make so much progress, so quickly: Kresge Foundation for providing the generous grant with which we are developing NIC; the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative for underwriting our California symposium; our other sponsors – IBM, Microsoft, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation – for their additional support; and the California Health and Human Services Agency for partnering with NIC and SVRDT in sponsoring the event. Most importantly, we thank everyone working with us to build NIC’s California “chapter” – and nationally.

Event Materials

Resources:

Session Description Resources
Day One - Welcome, Purpose and Orientation

Daniel Stein, President, Stewards of Change Institute/Co-Prinicipal Investigator, NIC
Michael Wilkening, Undersecretary, CA Health and Human Services Agency
Marcy Lauck, Founder and Co-Director, Silicon Valley Regional Data Trust; Director, Santa Clara County Office of Education
Margo Edmunds, PhD, AcademyHealth, Co-Principal Investigator, NIC

The Welcome session featured the following organizers and supporters of the California NIC Symposium: Daniel Stein, President, Stewards of Change Institute; Co-Principal Investigator, National Interoperability Collaborative Michael Wilkening, Acting Secretary, California Health and Human Services Agency Marcy Lauck, Founder and Co-Director, Silicon Valley Regional Data Trust; Director of Data Governance, Santa Clara County Office of Education Margo Edmunds, PhD, Vice President for Evidence Generation and Translation, AcademyHealth
Day One - Silicon Valley Regional Data Trust: A Scalable Model for Improving Educational Outcomes and Well-Being for Children and Families

Richard Gold, SOC Institute
Steve Ambrosini, IJIS Institute
Rebecca A. London, PhD, Assistant Professor, Sociology Department, Faculty Director, UC Santa Cruz
Marcy Lauck, SVRDT/Santa Clara County Office of Education

The presenters provide an overview of the mission, history, and organization of the Silicon Valley Regional Data Trust (SVRDT), a scalable model for improving educational, health, and human services outcomes and well-being for children and families. SVRDT provides a Secure Data Environment connecting public schools, health, and human service agencies in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz Counties and the University of California, Santa Cruz. The presenters will describe the policy, legal, and technology architectures that underlie this trustbased system, and will demonstrate a prototype of SVRDT’s Secure Data Environment.
Day One - Lunch Keynote - Sec. Diana Dooley, CHHSA

Day One - Damn the Silos: Using All Available Resources to Prevent and Combat the Opioid Crisis and Other Health Emergencies

Bill Hazel, MD, Senior Advisor, George Mason University
Karen Smith, MD, MPH, Director, CDPH,
Judge Anthony Capizzi, Montgomery County, OH, Juvenile Court; President, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Major Juan Colon (retired), NJ State Police; NJ Fusion Center Drug Monitoring Initiative; Stewards of Change Institute
Stuart Venzke, State and Local HHS Leader, IBM

Panelists will describe three current interoperability initiatives designed to better-address the opioid/heroin epidemic, including prevention, at every level: California’s diverse programs and projects statewide to enable a more-comprehensive approach; an Ohio county drug court’s testing of cognitive technology to aggregate multi-sector data and create a national model for the judiciary; and the New Jersey fusion center’s use of an information-sharing environment to improve the performance of local, county, and state law enforcement. The responder will focus on how these cross-sector initiatives might themselves be enhanced by connecting and sharing information with other relevant, interoperable systems as well as with NIC.
Day One - Building NIC in California and Beyond: Leading Edge Initiatives and Promising Practices

Michael Wilkening, CHHS Agency
Carrie Hoff, Deputy Director, San Diego Dept. of HHS
Mary Shamouel, CIO, Social Services Agency, County of Santa Clara
Debra Porchia-Usher, Chief Deputy Director, SSA, County of Santa Clara
Uma Ahluwalia, Director, Montgomery County, MD, Dept. of HHS
Lisa Villarreal, CEO, Youth Ventures Joint Powers Authority

Innovative interoperability and information-sharing efforts are growing around the U.S., and some are flourishing. This panel shines a spotlight on some successful initiatives, such as Live Well San Diego; an integrated and comprehensive client view in Santa Clara County; the Enterprise Integrated Case Management System in Montgomery County, MD; and a new platform to support national implementation of My Brother’s Keeper. Panelists will discuss what they’re learning and how their lessons can be applied; will inform NIC’s statewide development in California; and will suggest tools to promote further progress in collaboration more broadly.
Day One - Closing Remarks

Day One closing remarks made by Jessica P. Kahn, MPH, Senior Expert, McKinsey & Company and Daniel Stein, President, SOCI; Co-Principal Investigator, NIC.
Day Two - Welcome and Opening Remarks

Daniel Stein, SOCI/NIC, kicks off Day Two of the NIC Symposium.
Day Two - Building Collaborations and Information-Sharing across Multiple Domains

Paul Wormeli, IJIS Institute; Board Member, SOCI
Timothy Jay Carney, PhD, MPH, MBA, Senior Director of Data Analytics and Public Health Informatics, Association of State and Territorial Health Offi cials
Dan Chavez, Executive Director, San Diego Health Connect
Mary Ann Dewan, PhD, Santa Clara County Office of Education, Superintendent of Schools
Mariann Yeager, MBA, CEO, The Sequoia Project

The concept – and realization – that cross-sector collaborations and networks can greatly enhance effectiveness, efficiency, and outcomes is hardly new. Indeed, many successful initiatives employing information-sharing and interoperability have been launched during the last decade, and they have much to teach us. In this presentation, thought and practice leaders discuss the nuts, bolts, challenges, and lessons learned in furthering their respective organizations, providing insights for attendees in their own work, as well as for NIC to leverage in building its new Community of Networks.
Day Two - NIC In Action: Building the National Interoperability Collaborative and Partner Activities

Daniel Stein, President, SOC Institute; Co-Principal Investigator, NIC
Diane M. Carr, M.A., Fellow and past Board of Directors member, HIMSS
Richard Gold, SOC Institute
Janice Gruendel, PhD, MEd, Senior Fellow, Institute for Child Success; Consultant to Bridgeport (CT) Prospers

These presentations will provide an overview of the progress NIC has made over the nine months since it was launched at the Stewards of Change Institute’s 12th Annual National Symposium. Attendees will learn about the projects in which NIC is involved – in California and beyond – and will get a first look at NIC’s new website, its collaboration portal, and the initial module of its InterOptimability Training and Certification Curriculum (ITCC) program. Attendees will also hear about NIC’s plans for the future, and how they can become involved.
Day Two - Overview of NIC’s Environmental Scan of Published Interoperability Guidance

Margo Edmunds, PhD, Vice President for Evidence Generation and Translation, AcademyHealth
Beth H. Johnson, MPH, Director, AcademyHealth

Data-interoperability and information-sharing efforts are complex and challenging, but a series of promising practices is beginning to emerge. This presentation will report findings from an environmental scan by AcademyHealth (NIC’s leadership partner, with SOCI) that includes interviews with interoperability experts, a review of interoperability guidance documents and toolkits, and identifi cation of themes and gaps in guidance that NIC plans to address.
Day Two - The Role of Research and Analytics to Improve the Lives of Children and Families

Rebecca A. London, PhD, UC Santa Cruz
Katharyne Mitchell, Dean of the Division of Social Sciences, UC Santa Cruz
Emily Putnam Hornstein, Children’s Data Network, USC
Chris Kingsley, Senior Associate for Data Initiatives, Annie E. Casey Foundation
Mary Ann Bates, Executive Director, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, MIT

Research and analytics enable us to accumulate information, turn it into knowledge and, most pointedly, transform it into actionable insights. Presenters on this panel will discuss how their respective initiatives support the goals of providing insights and solutions from policy, research, and practice perspectives with the goal of advancing holistic, person-centered care. Panelists will discuss how their work is making an impact on care. Panelists will discuss how their work is making an impact on populations, as well as individual lives, and how lessons learned can inform

Day Two - The Art of the Possible: Precision Human Services

Karen Smith, MD, MPH, Director, CDPH
Elizabeth Baca, MD, MPA, Senior Health Advisor, California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research
Naomi Cytron, Regional Manager, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Community Development
Neal Halfon, MD, Founding Director, Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities, UCLA

“Person-centered care” is being refined and redefined as a result of innovative information-sharing initiatives in California and around the country. Today, the goal is not only to ensure that every individual’s specific circumstances are being addressed holistically, but also to integrate the gamut of available data relating to the social factors that impact health and well-being. This session will explore promising near- and longer-term opportunities to improve the way our systems share information and deliver care more effectively and efficiently.