Dive Brief:
- The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced this past week that it is planning Data for Health, a big data initiative to improve the nation's health through greater access to health information.
- An advisory committee will be led by David Ross, director of the Public Health Informatics Institute and Ivor Horn, medical director of Seattle Children's Hospital's Center for Diversity and Health Equity. The group of experts and practitioners will host Learning That Works events in Philadelphia, Phoenix, AZ, Des Moines, IA, San Francisco and Charleston, SC to hear from individuals and providers regarding data collection and sharing and using the information to improve community health.
- The advisory committee is slated to issue recommendations on the kind of infrastructure needed to best use health data by early 2015. Staff from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT will also take part in the events.
Dive Insight:
With an unprecedented amount of data available through electronic health records, fitness trackers and passive technologies like social networks, patient's digital footprints for health are everywhere. "Secure, protected access to this wealth of information has the potential to help individuals, health care providers and communities make smarter, faster decisions that improve the health of the public and promote healthy lifestyles," the RWJF wrote in a press release regarding the program. The initiative's goal is to understand how all of this information is being used and how communities would like to use it. Then, a plan can be created for infrastructure to collect, share, protect and support greater access to individuals' health information.