Collaborations

HLN collaborates with our clients and other organizations to develop rich content related to our areas of practice

 
HLN has collaborated with CDC, PHII, and AIRA since 2017 in establishing a Transitions Learning Community forum for jurisdictions considering, engaged in, or planning an IIS platform migration or other IIS system initiatives. In support of the community, HLN and its partners have developed groundbreaking tools, techniques, and templates for use by immunization programs and IIS staff to assess their current and future needs and evaluate the status of their IIS systems. These resources have been compiled into operations and migration toolkits available on the PHII website.
 
 
 
HLN summarized the meeting of nearly forty stakeholders from leading public health organizations and CDC colleagues to discuss the potential benefits, barriers, and sustainable business models of PPRL implementation.
 
 
HLN participated in the project that led to this new report focuses on the nuts and bolts of improving consent, such as legal and technical issues.
 
 
This report summarizes a series of listening sessions that CDC sponsored with public health informatics leaders focused on the future of disease surveillance. HLN synthesized their observations – and then added observations of our own – to produce this forward-looking report.
 

Public Health Informatics Institute, IIS Procurement Toolkit, 2021.

Working with a team at PHII, HLN brought to bear its 20+ years of experience in Immunization Information System (IIS) procurement to help develop this toolkit aimed at public health agencies to assist them in effectively procuring IIS products and services.

Patient-Centered Clinical Decision Support Learning Network, Recommendations for Building and Maintaining Trust in Clinical Decision Support Knowledge Artifacts, 2018.

HLN participated in the AHRQ-funded Patient-Centered Clinical Decision Support Learning Network Trust Framework Working Group (TFWG) to make recommendations for trust among actors in a clinical decision support (CDS) ecosystem.

HIMSS HIE & Interoperability Toolki Workgroup, HIMSS Interoperability Case Study – The Oregon Clinic, 2018.

Tim Fitzgerald, director of information technology for The Oregon Clinic, was interviewed for this case study, which tells how the clinic went from little to no interoperability to sharing information bi-directionally, previewing records, and proactively surfacing pertinent information from inbound Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture (C-CDA) documents. HLN participated on the project team that developed this case study describing The Oregon Clinic’s experience.

Stewards of Change Institute and Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, In the NIC of Time: Six Domains of Primary Focus for the National Interoperability Collaborative, 2018.

This document seeks to examine the workings of six key domains that operate to provide data across the continuum of care for patients. The six domains are human and social services; public health; public education; public safety; emergency medical services; and health information technology, which differs from the others in that it cuts across domains and is critical to their operations. The mission and work of each domain are summarized in this document, which was researched and written by the Stewards of Change Institute (SOCI), the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and several subject matter experts including HLN.

HIMSS Patient Identity Integrity Workgroup, Patient Identity Integrity in Health Information Organizations (HIOs), 2016.

In December 2009, the HIMSS Patient Identity Integrity Work Group (PI Integrity WG) released a seminal white paper on patient identity integrity and patient record matching. This subsequent white paper provides supplemental material to highlight special issues and considerations in the field of patient identity integrity as these relate to health information organizations (HIOs). HLN actively participated in the workgroup’s efforts to draft and edit this document.

HIMSS  Identity Management Task Force, Patient Portal Identity Proofing and Authentication, 2016.

This white paper provides guidance on identity proofing and authentication based on the belief that certain changes in the technology landscape, especially the nearly ubiquitous use of smartphones, have allowed us now to raise the bar on security without significantly impacting the cost or ease of use criteria. HLN actively participated in the workgroup’s efforts to draft and edit this document.

ONC, Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap version 1.0, 2015.

This document represents a key milestone in health information exchange planning by ONC under Karen DeSalvo, the then national coordinator for health information technology. HLN participated in the core team that authored and edited this seminal document.

Public Health Community Platform, Use Case for Clinical Decision Support for Immunization (CDSi), 2014.

The Public Health Community Platform was launched with the goal of providing a shared infrastructure for state and local jurisdictions enabling the development of interoperable systems and distributed analytical methods with common sources of data. Though it ultimately did not succeed in getting deployed, this document describes one of two use cases identified for implementation. In conjunction with PHII, HLN substantially wrote and edited this document.

ONC State Health Policy Consortium Project: Health Information Exchange in Disaster Preparedness and Response, Southeast Regional HIT-HIE Collaboration (SERCH): Final Report, 2012.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, this multi-state task force identified ways in which health information exchange (HIE) could be leveraged to provide timely access to clinical information in response to a disaster. HLN worked with teams from two of the six states in this collaborative under contract to RTI.

HIMSS HIE Guide Workgroup, A HIMSS Guide to Participating in a Health Information Exchange, 2009.

HLN participated in this HIMSS workgroup that developed this guide whose focus was to provide individual stakeholders with a tool that assists in the decision-making process of joining a health information exchange (HIE).

Public Health Data Standards Consortium, Business Case on the Role of Public Health in the National Health IT Standardization Process, 2009.

The Public Health Data Standards Consortium (PHDSC) was a national non-profit membership-based organization of federal, state and local health agencies, professional associations, academia, public and private sector organizations, international members, and individuals committed to bringing a common voice from the public health community to the national efforts of standardization of health information technology and population health in order to improve individual and community health. This document, which had substantial HLN involvement, presents a Business Case for public health participation in the HIT standardization process.

Public Health Data Standards Consortium and IHE, Building a Roadmap for Health Information Systems Interoperability for Public Health, 2008.

This white paper, developed with HLN input, describes public health and population health practices of governmental public health agencies that require access to health information exchanges incorporating clinical care data. It also provides examples of public health domains/programs (Immunization and Cancer) in the outline of the IHE Technical Tasks for Information Exchanges.

Health Level 7 Electronic Health Record Interoperability Work Group, Coming to Terms: Scoping Interoperability for Health Care, 2007 

This early HL7 white paper introduces a framework for the definition of interoperability based on a review of the literature and a survey of existing uses of the term across all industries. HLN participated in its development and dissemination.

Connections Community of Practice, Unique Records Portfolio, 2006 

The Unique Records Portfolio (the Portfolio) is a product of Connections, a community of practice supported by HRSA. The Portfolio’s concepts and tools are relevant to health care organizations as well as public health departments in addressing the challenge of uniquely identifying records in an integrated information system. HLN participated actively in the workgroup that developed this landmark document.