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

Introduction: The Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program supports interventions, including care-delivery innovations, provider performance measurement and feedback initiatives, and tools for providers and consumers to enhance care. Using a learning health system framework, we examine the Beacon Communities' processes in building and strengthening health IT (HIT) infrastructures, specifically successes and challenges in sharing patient information to improve clinical care.

Background: In 2010, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) launched the three-year program, which provided $250 million to 17 Beacon Communities to invest in HIT and health information exchange (HIE) infrastructure.

HIV screening programs in US emergency departments: a cross-site comparison of structure, process, and outcomes.

Objective: We present findings from a multisite evaluation that systematically compares HIV screening programs in 6 emergency departments (EDs).

Methods: From 2007 to 2008, we collected previous-year data on structural factors, process attributes, testing outcomes, and cost-effectiveness from 6 ED HIV testing programs operating for 6 months or longer. We administered questionnaires to program directors, conducted site visits, and interviewed key informants.

Many physicians are willing to use patients' electronic personal health records, but doctors differ by location, gender, and practice.

Electronic personal health records could become important tools for patients to use in managing and monitoring their health information and communicating with clinicians. With the emergence of new products and federal incentives that might indirectly encourage greater use of personal health records, policy makers should understand the views of physicians on using these records. In a national survey of physicians in 2008-09, we found that although 64 percent have never used a patient's electronic personal health record, 42 percent would be willing to try.

HIV testing and referral to care in U.S. hospitals prior to 2006: results from a national survey.

Objectives: We sought to provide a benchmark for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing availability and practices in U.S. hospitals prior to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) 2006 revised recommendations.

The value of collaboration in eliminating barriers to preventive care and screening among underserved populations.

Collaboration among a community's institutions and its residents can help increase the use of appropriate screening, preventive, and primary care services. To improve the health of the community, institutions must reach out to their colleagues and other stakeholders. They must not only deal with the structure of the healthcare delivery system but also be responsive to the characteristics of the local population groups they are trying to serve.