Author: Greg Bloom
-
Washington Communities for Children: developing the resource directory information supply chain
Washington Communities for Children (WCFC) is a network of early childhood coalitions – groups of local parents, child care providers, non-profits, public agencies, school districts, etc. – dedicated to improving the wellbeing of children, families, and communities acrossWashington state. In 2022, the Washington State Department of Health enlisted WCFC in its Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems…
-
Our 2023 Year in Review
Open Referral is turning 10 years old! Along the way, we’ve already achieved the first part of our mission: establishing industry standards for resource directory data exchange, to ensure that it’s possible to share, find, and use information about the health, human, and social services available to people in need – regardless of what technology…
-
Teaming up with Inform USA: an announcement from Open Referral leadership
I’m excited to share the news that, as of January 1st, I’ve stepped into the role of Senior Director of Strategy and Partnerships for Inform USA. Inform USA is the industry association representing information-and-referral providers across government and nonprofit human service sectors. Formerly known as AIRS (the Alliance of Information and Referral Systems), Inform USA…
-
Governing the Resource Directory Data Commons: A Vision and A Call to Action
Open Referral’s mission is to establish resource directory data as a public good – reliably and sustainably made freely available to all. Toward this end, we developed the Human Service Data Specifications – but we also know that solving this problem requires more than just technical interoperability among resource directory information systems. Indeed, success entails…
-
The Community Information Exchange Task Force Report from Michigan’s Dept of Health and Human Services
I’ve had the honor and privilege of working with the Michigan Community Information Exchange Task Force over the past year. I encourage you to read the report, which is published here. You can also watch this webinar summarizing the report with commentary from a range of task force members. In my (admittedly biased) opinion, this…
-
HSDS is now interoperable with FHIR®
As integration of healthcare and social care sectors becomes an ever-hotter topic, we’re excited to announce that we’ve taken a small but significant step forward: the Human Service Data Specifications are now aligned with the protocols for healthcare provider directory information specified by the Health Level Seven (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®). Continue reading…
-
Introducing Profiles: customize our standard for your domain!
We designed the Human Service Data Specifications (HSDS)to make it easy to share information about human services of any kind. But given the many nuanced differences across human service sectors – and states and countries and etc – it’s just not feasible to standardize every possible kind of information associated with any kind of service anywhere.…
-
Just Released: Toolkit for information exchange initiatives from the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT at HHS
I’m excited to share with you this toolkit for information exchange initiatives that aim to address the social determinants of health – shared by the Office of the National Coordination for Health Information Technology at the US Department of Health and Human Services (known as ONC). The toolkit (PDF downloadable here) synthesizes subject matter expertise…
-
Our 2022 Year in Review
Our 2022 Year in Review report is now available to review! This annual practice of review and reflection is an opportunity for us to step back and assess our progress across multiple objectives as we work towards our shared goal: a future in which it’s easy to share, find, and use information about the resources…
-
Upgrading the Human Service Data Specifications: 2022 development cycle underway
As Open Referral’s network grows – involving more stakeholders in the development of interoperable resource directory information supply chains – our tools and practices must evolve in kind to support more complex needs. So we are excited to share that Open Referral has initiated a new development cycle to upgrade the Human Service Data Specifications.…