Author: Greg Bloom
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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Progress Report 2021-22: Highlights from our Network
I’m excited to share Open Referral’s Progress Report for 2021-2022. You can download the report as a PDF here, and view the document online here. (All of our reports are accessible here.) Unlike our usual Year in Review, this report really describes activity across a period of 18 months overall. This is 6 months later…
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Tackling Data Dilemmas in Social Care Coordination: A Whitepaper on Community Information Exchange
Last year – with sponsorship from Robert Wood Johnson Foundations’ DASH program, and in partnership with the Regional Data Alliance at University of Missouri St Louis – I co-authored a whitepaper that aggregated research and recommendations from across the emerging field of “social care coordination.” This paper provides a strategic framework in which to understand…
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Improving access to legal aid by improving search results with schema.org
Despite the vast amounts of information on the Web, finding reliable information about legal services through internet searches is harder than many expect. Basic searches — for needs like assistance with evictions, help with public benefits, or protection from domestic violence — often turn bewildering as results on Google, among other search engines, typically seem…
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Supporting the Gravity Project to expand interoperability among health, human, and social services
Often people ask how we enable care providers to actually refer their clients to another service. The answer is, well, Open Referral doesn’t actually deal with the process of “making a referral” at all! We’re working to ensure that there’s open access to information about the services to which someone might be referred. But the…
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Open Referral’s 2020 Year in Review
Amid the disruptions and crises of 2020, the Open Referral Initiative rallied to meet increasing and rapidly changing needs for improved flow of information about community resources. As our new year starts to take shape – with collective needs for collaboration still rising unabated – we’ve taken some time to reflect on our progress and accomplishments.…
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HHS Technology Challenge calls for interoperability solutions using HSDS
The U.S. Administration for Community Living provides funding and support to networks of community-based organizations who serve elders and people with disabilities. ACL’s grantees include a vast array of services that help people cope with food insecurity and transportation issues, manage chronic disease, support employment and economic independence, reduce social isolation, and address other factors…