From Siloes to Solutions: Getting to Interoperability in Health and Human Services
This scan reflects the results of a systematic online search of freely available technical documents and toolkits that promote interoperability and provide guidance about how to share and integrate information from different sources. It also includes insights from interoperability experts from health, education, public health, and human services systems.
All across the country, health and human services programs are making connections so they can provide more coordinated approaches to health and well-being in their communities. The drive to build collaborations comes from a sense of urgency about overcoming the separated, “siloed” approaches to health and social care that have evolved under different sources of funding, leadership, agency and organizational cultures, and jurisdictions, and that hinder efforts to coordinate and share information effectively.
The National Interoperability Collaborative (NIC), co-led by Stewards of Change Institute and AcademyHealth, works to improve information-sharing, interoperability, and use of technology among the sectors that impact health and well-being. As a part of that effort, this report:
- Defines the stakeholders and systems that comprise an interoperability ecosystem that spans across health and human services sectors;
- Identifies guidance documents on interoperability to better understand the scope of existing resources and help foster implementation among users within and across sectors;
- Identifies standards and best practices to disseminate high-level learnings and recommendations from experts;
- Analyzes gaps in available guidance to help focus attention on where there is a need for additional resources and assistance; and
- Informs development of a plan for NIC and its partners to work with stakeholders and other experts in the field to address these gaps with new resources and investments.