December 5, 1995
Healthcare CIO Committee
International Center for Communications
Minutes from CIO Healthcare Committee Meeting of December 5, 1995
Attendees: John Buettgen (Scripps), Bill Bostwick (SDDPC/Los Alamos), Cheryl Clancy (Sharp), John Eger (SDSU), Jon Fullinwider (County of San Diego), Joe Giammona (SDDPC), Ed Lowell (Sharp), Kevin Patrick (SDSU Public Health), Amy Sheridan (County of San Diego), Ron Wittenberg (SDDPC).
The meeting began with introductions.
John Eger then presented an update regarding the City of the Future (COF). Mr. Eger stated that since the reports of the COF Committees (Healthcare, InfoSanDiego, Education, and Security/Privacy/Intellectual Property) were submitted to Mayor Golding in May 1995, no entity has taken the lead to begin implementing the recommendations. Mr. Eger stated that organizations such as the San Diego Baja Communications Council have tried to offer assistance, but the roles of the City and County governments, as well as the proper types of partnership with private industry have yet to be defined.
Mr. Eger went on to discuss the COF Healthcare Task Force's recommendation regarding a Community Health Information Network (CHIN). He mentioned that everyone he's contacted agrees that a CHIN is a good idea, but, again, some entity needs to take the lead in fostering the CHIN. It was suggested that the County take the lead, since the Health area is under the purview of the County. Jon Fullinwider agreed to offer his services, and the services of the County Department of Information Services (DIS) to further the efforts of the hospital chief information officers (CIOs). It was explained that the CIOs had previously held some meetings to try to define some common ground for mutual cooperation. Mr. Fullinwider offered to allow the CIOs to utilize the DIS electronic bulletin board, and stated that there was potential for establishing a world-wide-web Internet home page in the future.
Mr. Eger then described some of the efforts that were underway within the City and County to create a "Region of the Future." He described in particular some of the activities of the County Economic Advisory Board, and also commented that the City's Telecommunications Request for Proposals (RFP) might elicit responses which could provide telecommunications infrastructure to support healthcare initiatives. The bottom line, according to Mr. Eger, is collaboration among the City, County, SDDPC, and the private sector health care entities.
Mr. Fullinwider described some of the regional activities being contemplated by the County, and urged the CIOs to focus immediate attention on creating an application which would demonstrate the technical capabilities of a City-County-SDDPC-Private sector cooperative. He believes the near-term emphasis should be on something which could be up and running within a few weeks. Mr. Fullinwider asserted that if the team acts now, then everyone would see results rather than a long, deliberative process.
Bill Bostwick discussed some prior meetings with UCSD and the San Diego State School of Public Health regarding the CHIN. There was consensus that a common City/County structure could provide the necessary vehicle for launching the CHIN. Mr. Bostwick said there is a lot of pertinent data which has been collected by various government agencies that could form the foundation of the CHIN. Some of this data related to immunization and other types of community health issues. Mr. Bostwick echoed the feeling that it's time to do something NOW.
Kevin Patrick related that some activities that were being discussed at the meeting had already been initiated by other entities, and that the CIO group should coordinate with these activities rather than seek to "reinvent the wheel." One area that had some momentum was AB697 compliance. Dr. Patrick described three categories of potential users: consumer, clinician, and public health professionals. The CIO group should develop an application which would demonstrate a solution to the users. Dr. Patrick offered to provide information on other areas, particularly the state of Washington, are grappling with the same problems. He agreed that the Internet and electronic bulletin boards were good ways to disseminate the information.
John Buettgen asked for clarification regarding the roles of the City of the Future Healthcare Task Force, the CIO group, and the Bylaws subcommittee which was working to implement San Diego Telehealth (one of the recommendations of the Healthcare Task Force). It became clear during the discussion that there needed to be more communication among these different groups, and that all efforts should be reattached to the original City of the Future (and now the Region of the Future) efforts. We need to prevent a "balkanization" of the healthcare initiatives in San Diego.
There was consensus among the group that better coordination of activities was an immediate objective. Mr. Fullinwider agreed to call a meeting of the CIO group which would establish the proper roles of the County and the City to support the group's effort. The By-laws committee is scheduled to meet on December 18th, and Joe Giammona agreed to participate in the meeting and ensure that proper roles for the County and City were similarly identified.
Mr. Buettgen briefly highlighted the progress of the By-laws committee to date, and mentioned that the Healthcare Data Information Corporation (HDIC) was being used as a model for bylaws.
The group then discussed the HDIC, and while it was generally agreed that the HDIC model could have potential benefits to San Diego, Dr. Patrick, in particular, felt that outside money (e.g. grants) should also be pursued. Mr. Buettgen and Ed Lowell stated that both of their organizations had some experience with HDIC, and that the CIO group needed to ensure that its efforts would not jeopardize ongoing efforts by the hospitals.
Mr. Buettgen reiterated that the Bylaws Committee was at the point of identifying potential funding sources for San Diego Telehealth. Cheryl Clancy asked Dr. Patrick whether or not the suppliers and vendors were potential sources of funding for San Diego Telehealth, and it was agreed that, indeed, these sources should be contacted at some point.
Mr. Buettgen mentioned that a letter had been sent to healthcare payers on behalf of the CIO group to solicit their involvement as well. To date, a meeting had not been scheduled with those payers that expressed interest.
The meeting ended with all members of the group agreeing that the efforts of the CIOs, the Bylaws Committee, and the other interested entities (e.g.. universities, government, etc.) needed to be integrated via better communications. This would be the only way to ensure that all of the groups were working in a consistent direction.
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