Building and strengthening infrastructure for data exchange: lessons from the beacon communities

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Health Information Technology (HIT)
• Learning Health Systems

Background:

• The Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program funded 17 communities with $250 million to advance health IT and HIE.
• The program aimed to improve care delivery, provider performance measurement, and consumer engagement through HIT innovations.
• Communities focused on developing and disseminating HIT-enabled quality improvement practices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the processes, successes, and challenges of Beacon Communities in building and strengthening health IT infrastructures.
• To understand the strategies employed for sharing patient information to improve clinical care within a learning health system framework.

Main Methods:

• NORC conducted 7 site visits and discussions with the remaining 10 Beacon Communities between November 2012 and October 2013.
• Information gathered included transcripts, team observations, and provided documents.
• A within-Community analysis focused on context, stakeholders, intervention strategies, enabling factors, and challenges.

Main Results:

• Despite unique environments, Beacon Communities shared common challenges and enabling factors in developing data-sharing strategies.
• Key priorities included promoting technical advances (EHR adaptation, technical support for smaller providers), engaging stakeholders, and fostering transparent governance.
• Success was facilitated by customizable IT solutions and neutral conveners for governance.

Conclusions:

• All communities successfully developed or strengthened data-exchange infrastructure, adapting to unique market and legal factors.
• Common challenges and enabling factors emerged across diverse community settings.
• Lessons learned from the Beacon Communities' experiences can inform organizations pursuing collaborative data sharing, performance measurement, and clinical transformation.