Colorado Builds on Robust APCD and Other HIT Assets in its New Health IT Roadmap
Colorado recently released its statewide health IT roadmap. The plan aligns with national efforts, leverages Colorado’s existing data and health IT infrastructure and comes with a snappy slogan: “Best Care, Best Health, Best Value.”
Colorado’s plan details initiatives that support care coordination, while also engaging with and empowering consumers through data governance and integration. Best practices for cyber security, affordable analytics, consent management, and digital health innovation will also be promoted.
“Best Care, Best Health, and Best Value” is the philosophical lens that ties the plan together. Colorado has included 16 initiatives to advance these objectives in its newly unveiled plan, including partnering with local communities.
“We are aligning with national efforts, as well as leveraging Colorado’s information assets including two sustainable HIEs, an APCD, clinical measures reporting network, a telehealth network, and our top ten digital health innovation community,” Mary Anne Leach, Director of Colorado’s Office of eHealth Innovation told Healthcare IT News.
Well-regarded plans from Vermont and Arizona influenced Colorado’s roadmap. The recent Vermont Health Information Technology Plan, released in 2016, takes a similar approach to Colorado’s. It focuses on strategies to: “establish strong leadership and governance for HIE, expand [and] engage clinicians and patients, expand connectivity and interoperability, provide reliable health data and timely access to it, and continue making privacy a top priority.” Arizona’s plan was broader, focusing on clinical adoption of IT and secure health data sharing. It also bolstered efforts to keep the state update to date on HIE practices and technologies.
In addition to reviewing the approaches of industry-leading states, Colorado also looked to the Office of the National Coordinator’s Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap. However, Colorado’s roadmap timeline of 3 to 5 years is shorter than the xx-year national effort, according to the State HIT Coordinator, Carrie Paykoc.
“The roadmaps are broader than technology. Broader than interoperability. Broader than Medicaid and state agencies,” said Laura Kolkman, President of Mosaica Partners, a firm that also partnered with Arizona and Vermont for similar initiatives, in the HealthCare IT story.
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