Notes from the Work Session of the HNI / Rural Health Meeting
New Orleans, LA
October 16-17, 2008
Introduction
The final session of the Health Network Initiative meeting in New Orleans focused on identifying one topic for the each of the following four categories to be included in a virtual Playbook for the RHCPP Participants to use as a resource.
The categories are:
o Challenges and approaches to meet them
o Best practices
o Barriers to be addressed
o Application and expertise resources
The topics were captured on easels from 6 groups with approximately 10 people in each group. The synthesized summary of those notes is captured here.
Challenges
•The program itself is just a challenge
•The new emphasis on sustainability is causing angst
•There is a challenge in educating decision makers at both the federal and regional levels
•The lack of Project Management Reimbursement
•Changing Healthcare environment vs. non-flexible USAC procedures
oEstablishing cross-disciplinary teams to accomplish the projects to include Medical Professionals, IT professionals, Telecom experts, etc.
oThere is often a lack of a common vocabulary
•The number of sites in may project is growing and / or changing
•Establishing common priorities across and within projects
•Having the patience / persistence / steadfastness to accomplish the project
•Getting regulatory bodies to lighten up and accept some risk in a 'pilot' program
•Overcoming last mile issues
•Corporate involvement
oCultural differences – profit vs. philanthropic
•The US economy is now a challenge
Responses
•Replace the 'straightjacket no-risk' approach with good faith efforts
•Create issues list
oCategorize issues
oPublish the list
oAct as a united group
•Establish a newsletter to help keep in synch
•Approach the VA and CDC about a partnership
•Help the projects to collaborate
•Work with the FCC to modify the existing Rural Health Program
•Approach congress for help
•Approach / work with the telecos and congress
•It may help to modularize projects
Best Practices
•Written guidelines
oAddress specific issues
o"Health Network Initiative for Dummies"
oDocument similar to the security work group document
oHow to build a health network (regionally and nationally)
oHow to integrate
•Health Information Exchanges (HIEs)
•Regional Health Information Organizatons (RHIOs)
•Set priorities (regionally and nationally)
•Sharing information
oRepository
oList Serve
oBulletin Board
oWiki
•Identify visible champions
•Use Brazil as a model
Barriers
•Lack of government facilitation
•Excessive red tape
•Fragmentation of the health sector
•Lack of written shared guidance
Resources
•Each other
•Create a group to collect, categorize, manage and publicize the Issues
•IT support
oDevelop a list of needs
•Leverage expertise
oInternet2
oNational Library of Medicine
oAmerican Telemedicine Association
oCtel
oOffice of the National Coordinator for HIT
•Office for the Advancement of Telemedicine
•Keep us informed about what is happening with the RHCPP using various modes such as RSS feeds.