Current State of Data Exchange

To fulfill their essential services, public health agencies rely on healthcare providers to share relevant and timely patient information. Electronic health records (EHR) systems have the potential to make data available instantly and securely, creating a more seamless flow of information between healthcare and public health. However, current data exchange approaches do not take full advantage of EHRs and too often result in administrative burden that hinders effective collaboration between the two entities. As a result, incidents of public health significance go unreported or there is a delay in reporting, and opportunities for public health surveillance and for public health to relay useful information back to healthcare providers are missed.

What is Digital Bridge?

Launched in 2016, Digital Bridge creates a forum for healthcare experts, public health professionals, and industry partners to discuss the challenges of information sharing and incubate solutions for a nationally consistent and sustainable approach to using electronic health data. A unique characteristic of Digital Bridge is its commitment to promoting bidirectional information exchange between healthcare and public health, ensuring that the needs of each stakeholder group are met and fostering a better connection between the two, a relationship that is integral to efficient public health surveillance.

As its first project, Digital Bridge designed a nationally scalable, multi-jurisdictional approach to electronic case reporting (eCR), the automated generation and transmission of case reports from the electronic health record (EHR) to public health agencies for review and action. In Fall 2019, the nationwide scale-up of eCR transitioned to CDC, the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE).

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Our Approach

Digital Bridge promotes the use of national health IT infrastructure to alleviate the administrative burden and costs of outdated, siloed data exchange practices. It allows public health to speak with one voice by encouraging collaboration across all jurisdictions. By convening healthcare providers and industry partners, Digital Bridge provides an opportunity for them to be part of the conversation and solution to effective data exchange.

Digital Bridge Goals:

  • Ease the burden and costs for all stakeholder groups through a unified approach to information exchange.
  • Advance greater standards-based information exchange across public health and health care.
  • Lay the foundation for greater bidirectional exchange of data so that clinicians can be more informed about population health, environmental risks and outbreaks.

Our Structure

Digital Bridge is led by a Collaborative Body that is made up of members from healthcare, public health, and industry partners. The Collaborative Body formed in Fall 2016 and meets quarterly to assess the initiative’s progress, vote on decisions that advance the initiative’s goals, and approve resources developed by workgroups. The Executive Committee is comprised of seven officers, including the Digital Bridge Chair and Vice-Chair, and exercises the authority of the Collaborative Body; the Executive Committee meets monthly.

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