RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The OCHIN Community Information Network: Bringing Together Community Health Centers, Information Technology, and Data to Support a Patient-Centered Medical Village
JF The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Medicine
JO J Am Board Fam Med
FD American Board of Family Medicine
SP 271
OP 278
DO 10.3122/jabfm.2013.03.120234
VO 26
IS 3
A1 DeVoe, Jennifer E.
A1 Sears, Abigail
YR 2013
UL http://www.jabfm.org/content/26/3/271.abstract
AB Creating integrated, comprehensive care practices requires access to data and informatics expertise. Information technology (IT) resources are not readily available to individual practices. One model of shared IT resources and learning is a “patient-centered medical village.” We describe the OCHIN Community Health Information Network as an example of this model; community practices have come together collectively to form an organization that leverages shared IT expertise, resources, and data, providing members with the means to fully capitalize on new technologies that support improved care. This collaborative facilitates the identification of “problem sheds” through surveillance of network-wide data, enables shared learning regarding best practices, and provides a “community laboratory” for practice-based research. As an example of a community of solution, OCHIN uses health IT and data-sharing innovations to enhance partnerships between public health leaders, clinicians in community health centers, informatics experts, and policy makers. OCHIN community partners benefit from the shared IT resource (eg, a linked electronic health record, centralized data warehouse, informatics, and improvement expertise). This patient-centered medical village provides (1) the collective mechanism to build community-tailored IT solutions, (2) “neighbors” to share data and improvement strategies, and (3) infrastructure to support innovations based on electronic health records across communities, using experimental approaches.