The new 21st century health IT infrastructure presents unique opportunities to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of healthcare systems. The impact on consumers, communities, and society at-large is so profound that Johns Hopkins University (JHU) has established the Center for Population Health IT www.jhsph.edu/cphit (CPHIT).
The focus for CPHIT is on the application of health IT targeted to communities, special needs populations, and other denominator groups of consumers. The entities involved include insurance plans and employers, provider-based accountable care organizations, integrated delivery systems, and government agencies. CPHIT is focusing on activities within the U.S. and other high income nations but at the same time, is also collaborating with e-health efforts at JHU geared to developing nations.
Currently, CPHIT is conducting a research project “Predicting Hospital Readmissions Utilizing HIE Real-Time Data” involving CRISP www.crisphealth.org, which is Maryland’s Health Information Exchange.
CRISP has developed an Encounter Notification System www.crisphealth.org (ENS) to alert primary care providers of sentinel events regarding patients but the ENS lacks a tool to identify risk of readmission. What is needed is a real-time system to identify persons discharged from the hospital who are at high risk for readmission.
This research project in part will base its algorithms on the JHU ACG System http://acg.jhsph.org which has been used for over two decades across the U.S and in 15 other countries, to generate predictive models of various healthcare events with a high degree of accuracy.
Other CPHIT research will develop and test measures created from EHRs and other health IT systems to quantify quality, outcomes, and what is needed within target populations and communities.
Another research project will create an interoperable community of EHR networks and integrate them with public health agencies. It is anticipated that innovative EHR-based tools and decision support will be developed for the next generation system.
In addition, CPHIT maintains dialogue and relationships with leaders from every sector involved with health IT. Organizations and businesses, both public and private work with CPHIT to learn best practices, share resources and talent, advance research, and disseminate products and findings through the JHU CPHIT Industry Partners Program.
The Industry Partners Program provides networking opportunities with others in the industry on topics of that companies can share but are non-competitive. For more information, email CPHIT Director, Jonathan Weiner at jweiner@jhsph.edu or call 410-955-5661.