Health Trends Across Communities Minnesota Reports Progress
The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred a number of advancements in terms of health data sharing and collaboration. The need to track and report on infections and outcomes caused many organizations to take a second look at their data sharing capabilities and spurred advancements in organizations like health information exchanges (HIEs) and EHR consortiums. One of these groups has just released an update on the progress they’ve made in affecting public health.
The Minnesota EHR Consortium (MNEHRC) created the project, known as Health Trends Across Communities (HTAC-MN), toward the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Like many initiatives of the time, was centered on sharing COVID-19 data. Since common methods of transmitting data like HL7 and its FHIR counterpart are better suited for individual patient data, MNEHRC built their model using OMOP, which is suited for large data use cases.
Healthcare Innovation, which reported on the project three years ago, returned to report on the HTAC update given last week. The group was pleased to share that they now have 11 of the largest health systems in Minnesota as members. The goal is to use the data being shared, in collaboration with local agencies and the state department of health, to provide better care for patients and more informed policy decisions for legislators. To this end, the data being examined is studied at an aggregate level and isn’t meant to identify individuals or provide individual recommendations.
What public health officials do have access to is an informative dashboard giving them insight into the types and rates of behavioral, mental, and chronic health conditions in the state. This is especially crucial as a recent assessment of Minnesota public health departments revealed gaps in data and equity, particularly in smaller departments. The HTAC project provides increased data access for all of the state’s public health entities rather than just those with the means for a large project like this.
Both public health agencies and hospitals have an incentive to collaborate on a project like this because assessing community health needs and developing plans to address them is a governmental requirement. By sharing information, hospitals and agencies can see a more complete picture of the community they’re serving while not duplicating efforts. Public health agencies in particular benefit from medical record information as it allows them to survey citizens on things like social determinants of health rather than data already in the EMR.
The relationships built from projects like this also allow for better responses when the next public health emergency arises as both the technical and interpersonal frameworks are in place. With the success they’ve seen in Minnesota, the MNEHRC is hoping to bring the model to a new state and is currently working on a grant to do so. It’s impressive to see the mutual benefit that the government and providers get from a project like this, ultimately leading to more timely data and better decision making.
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