Author: Delaney Paterson, MSHC, Manager of Client Engagement

Whether you’re an existing participant of the statewide Health Information Exchange (HIE), a partner supporting our vision of improving patient care and population health, or an invested stakeholder – either near or far – following our efforts, we need your help!

In our pursuit to meet our participants’ ever-evolving health information needs, we’re looking to form new partnerships that collaboratively support goals that extend beyond our traditional expertise and gained experiences. The following areas represent a few of our current engagement priorities that we are hoping to advance with your guidance:

Oral/Dental Health

• Context: There is a proven relationship between oral health and general health. Most oral health diseases and conditions share risk factors with the leading noncommunicable diseases (e.g., diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and mental disorders), including tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and unhealthy diets. These diseases not only can impact individuals from early childhood through older age, but also disproportionately affect those who are most vulnerable and underserved. Despite its importance in defining an individual’s overall health status, oral health data sets are almost entirely absent within the HIE’s services.
• Ask: We are seeking partnerships with public health agencies, general medical organizations, and/or dental practices educating on, referring, or directly providing oral health services within Maine so that we can discuss ways in which we can work together to establish whole-person care practices.

Community/Social Care

• Context: For the last several years, HealthInfoNet has been working as an information conduit among medical providers, community-based organizations, and other cross-sector stakeholders working in our communities to improve individuals’ social health-related risks, conditions, and outcomes. However, HealthInfoNet has experienced obstacles in making substantial headway in fulfilling requests for applying health information to advance health equity efforts due to a lack of sustainable funding opportunities. Without funding, many of the cross-sector partners interested in supporting our aim are unable to become fully immersed in our efforts.
• Ask: We are hoping to identify funding opportunities that would enable HealthInfoNet to provide subsidized participation fees for interested community-based organizations that meet the statewide HIE’s eligibility requirements (e.g., Area Agencies on Aging, Community Action Agencies, etc.) in order to bolster the HIE’s cross-sector participation and related use cases.

We look forward to hearing from you with any leads or additional questions that you may have pertaining to these engagement opportunities. Additionally, if your organization has other priorities for using health information to support its objectives, contact us to share more information and to learn about how we may be able to partner.

If you have any leads, questions, or comments, please contact our Client Engagement team via email at clientengagement@hinfonet.org.