Thank you to all who were able to attend our presentation of the results from the 2023 National Health Information Exchange Organization (HIO) Survey presented by Civitas Networks for Health and the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine’s Clinical Informatics and Improvement Research Center. The National HIO Survey is the most comprehensive and authoritative poll of HIEs available in the industry, developed by combining Civitas’ experience and UCSF’s unique expertise with federal support from ONC, and made possible by the participation of our members.

In case you missed this event, or want to revisit the discussion, materials are now available!

Civitas members participated in a roundtable with guest presenters from Michigan Health Information Network to learn more about the political determinants of health, and how they worked with Congress in Michigan to support increased health data interoperability for the 12 tribes in the state. Here’s what we came away with:

• Data standards and producing accurate data are critically important to tribal health.
• Privacy and security are even more important when building trust.
• Trust cannot be overlooked with tribal populations and in working with tribal leaders; leaders need to know what you are doing with the data and that they still own the data.
• Having data at the point of care also helps with building trust.
• Work with tribes on specific use cases.
• In working with state representatives on tribal health, educate them about the populations they serve.
• Bring people together to problem solve, use real-life data to help people understand, and once there is shared understanding solutions will emerge.

In case you missed this event, or want to revisit the discussion, materials are now available!

Thank you to all who participated in our member roundtable with guest presenters from Dartmouth Health in New Hampshire to learn more about the political determinants of health, how to build political will and savvy, and how to influence policy makers on important bills that ultimately impact the health of the communities we work with. In today’s case, we talked mostly about maternal health and the opioid crisis, but these takeaways broadly apply. Here’s what we came away with:

• To influence policy, coalition building is critical.
• Convene partners to build relationships and to educate on both baseline information and more complex topics. Let this be a catalyst for future discussion.
• Be sure that partners know what legislative opportunities exist and provide summaries of what is and isn’t happening.
• As you offer educational opportunities, be sure to measure increased understanding overtime.
• Building shared understanding increases the opportunity for greater influence.
• Think of the coalition, key partners, and legislators as an advocacy ecosystem.
• Remember to listen.
• Timely response is essential.
• Always be mindful of your political environment and when to use political capitol.

In case you missed this event, or want to revisit the discussion, materials are now available!