Martin Love (left) and Jessica Osborne-Stafsnes (right), North Coast Health Improvement and Information Network
This episode features Martin Love, CEO and Jessica Osborne-Stafsnes, Program Manager at the North Coast Health Improvement and Information Network (NCHIIN) – a non-profit health information exchange in Humboldt County, CA. NCHIIN focuses on exchanging information across multiple sectors – including social care, medical care, behavioral health, criminal justice, education and more – to support care coordination and improve health. As an awardee of DASH CIC-START, NCHIIN worked with partners to add new organizations, sectors, and data streams to ACT.md, their care coordination and alerts notification system. They provided insights about engaging partners to incorporate the system into their workflows to provide more holistic care for patients, especially those with complex health and social needs.
Additional Resources:
- Learn more about NCHIIN and connect with their team on the All In online community
- Download the Care Coordination Platform Onboarding Document they developed as part of their DASH CIC-START project
- Read more about their Community Health Peer Learning Program (CHP) project and learn how they developed a collaborative consent process in this CHP bright spot
This podcast is also available on iTunes, Stitcher, and TuneIn.
Takeaways from the Interview
In the words of Martin Love and Jessica Osborne-Stafsnes…
1. Take time to understand the unique needs of partners from other sectors
“We had some naive views of how this would work. We thought it would be a lot like exchanging data from one health care provider to another health care provider. In truth, the county human services/social services environment was not at all like the medical care environment. So we had to understand that and then co-design, with the county, what the platform would look like and how they would use it.”
– Martin Love
2. Trust is an essential foundation for initiating a data sharing relationship
“One of the things we’ve reflected a lot about over the course of this work, whether we’re wearing our HIE hat or our community health improvement hat, is how essential trust is and how it’s an underlying foundational element of this work. When we approached partners, because there was a trusting relationship built, they were willing to explore the opportunity with us and see what could emerge.”
– Jessica Osborne-Stafsnes
3. Technology will not be adopted without an effective value case
“We’re pretty much convinced that it’s about relationships. We don’t want to suggest that all of this is easy IT-wise, but generally the IT part can be done and the relationship part takes more time. Another principle that seems to be true across our projects is it’s all about use case and workflow. No matter how sophisticated the technology, unless there’s value in what we’re providing, it will not be adopted.”
– Martin Love