Consumer Consortium on eHealth

Inventory Work Group

DRAFT – Preliminary Work Plan

05/25/2011

●      Name: Inventory Work Group

●      Purpose:  Gather information on initiatives, best practices, tools, and resources and identify gaps

●      Co-Chairs:  Dave deBronkart, Josh Rubin

●      Participants:

●      Lyn Paget, Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making

●      Katherine Doermann Byrd, American College of Cardiology

●      Sarah Corley, Nextgen

●      Sims Preston, Polyglot Systems

●      Lisa Fowler, NCPA

●      Anita Samarth, Clinovations

●      Cindy Throop, RTI

●      Scott Fannin, Greenway Medical Technologies

●      Nina Jolani, National Association of County and City Health Officials

●      Major objectives

●      The work of the Inventory Work Group will serve as the essential foundation upon which all other work groups will ultimately base their own work.

●      The Inventory Work Group aims to gather information on:

• ● Best practices and tools for engaging patients/consumers (hereafter, “consumers”) on the topic of health information technology.
• ● Current attitudes and beliefs of consumers and the general public vis-à-vis health IT.
• ● Developments and changes in this arena since the passage of HITECH portions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
• ● Best practices and tools for consumer and public engagement from other industries/arenas that can potentially be applied to health IT.
• ● Gaps in what is known that need to be addressed.
• ● Preliminary assessments that will aid in segmentation and targeting so as to lay a foundation to enable future work of the Consumer Consortium on eHealth to integrate being inclusive/diverse and addressing the problem of health disparities from the outset.

●      The Inventory Work Group will aim to assess all information gathered in order to determine which organizations/practices among them all are the most effective and the thought leaders; such organizations/practices/tools will be highlighted.

●      The Inventory Work Group will sufficiently limit the scope of its goals so as to make its work manageable.

●      The Inventory Work Group will develop a user-friendly, accessible inventory that becomes the “go-to” resource and starting point for multiple and diverse individuals and organizations interested in consumer engagement, education, and empowerment.

●      The Inventory Work Group will develop an infrastructure and process to ensure that its work products can be continually updated; rather than being a snapshot at a point in time, methods will be developed to enable ongoing collaboration and continuous updating so that its work remains current and relevant, resulting in a sustainable, lasting, and continually evolving  real-world impact.

●      Preliminary proposed process/work plan

●      Step 1: Reach consensus among Inventory Work Group members on vision, goals, priorities, scope, desired deliverables/outcomes/work products, and project approach

• ● Hold meetings with Inventory Work Group members.
• ● Refine this document.

●      Step 2: Validate approach with larger Consumer Consortium on eHealth group

• ● Circulate ideas for feedback and comments from larger group.
• ● Focus on ensuring that the work of the Inventory Work Group will ultimately meet the needs of and lay the foundation for the work of other work groups.
• ● Refine based on input

●      Step 3: Develop and implement infrastructure and framework for capturing data

• ●Develop tools that will enable us to capture, organize, assess, prioritize, and share what we know.
• ● Ensure that infrastructure developed will enable the work products to remain interactive, “living,” and continuously updated.
• ● Ensure that tools are inclusive and collaborative, enabling input and contributions from multiple and diverse sources.

●      Step 4: Conduct preliminary literature review

• ● Divide up work into segments/categories and organize volunteers to conduct a preliminary literature review.
• ● Build on research already conducted.
• ● Capture what is found in an organized way.
• ● Post findings/documents in such a way that they can be accessed by others.
• ● Begin assessing what is most important and ensure that it is highlighted.

●      Step 5: Gather contributions from Inventory Work Group Members

• ● Ask each Inventory Work Group member to leverage the collaborative infrastructure to share what he/she knows; each should add the tools, best practices, resources, research, and information that he/she is aware of firsthand to the collaborative workspace.
• ● The Inventory Work Group members should continue and refine their efforts to develop and implement a framework for prioritizing and assessing which information is best/most significant/most valuable/most useful, and begin applying it to information gathered.

●      Step 6:Reach out to larger community

• ● Members of the Consumer Consortium on eHealth should be invited to review progress to date as well as to contribute their own knowledge, information, research, resources, tools, and best practices.
• ● Each member of the Inventory Work Group (as well as other members of the Consumer Consortium on eHealth who wish to do so) should reach out to several of his/her esteemed colleagues who are not part of the Consumer Consortium on eHealth and request contributions to the inventory being developed (as well as feedback on efforts to date).

●      Step 7: Develop agreed-upon work products in light of information gathered to date

• ● Organize and refine public-facing websites to best ensure user-friendliness and accessibility.
• ● Develop other presentations, papers, and agreed-upon work products.
• ● Synthesize succinct list of most significant findings.

●      Step 8: Present and validate in front of larger Consumer Consortium on eHealth group

• ● Present findings to larger audience.
• ● Solicit input that can be used to validate findings and refine their presentation.
• ● If needed, refine work products in light of feedback received.

●      Step 9: Publicize work

• ● Leverage the very tools learned about (e.g., social media, patient/consumer websites and resources) to engage consumers and the general public on what has been learned.
• ● Work with the press to inform the health IT community as well as the general public about work done to date and key findings.
• ● Sit down with select key stakeholders (e.g., the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology) to discuss logical next steps in light of lessons learned.

●      Step 10: Keep up the good work

• ● Work to build bridges and forge alliances, aligning similar organizations and initiatives, expanding everyone’s reach and impact.
• ● Combine resources and capabilities where appropriate, in light of lessons learned.
• ● Ensure that a collaborative, interactive infrastructure is in place to enable the work of the Inventory Work Group to be ongoing and dynamic, allowing it to be continually updated.
• ● Work with other work groups as they build on the foundations developed by the Inventory Work Group’s work.
• ● Build on lessons learned to continually expand the reach of and magnify the impact of the Consumer Consortium on eHealth.