Discuss thoughts about funding a public health informatics system

Order Instructions

Explore the following informatics advancement of interoperability for population health improvement in the Commonwealth of Virginia Mr. Powell, Mr. Vaamonde, Mr. Russell, of Old Dominion University (www.odu.edu) and others speak about the Unite Us platform to merge health and social determinants of health data across multiple state agencies, healthcare and hospital systems, social services organizations, community-based organizations, and other medical and public health entities. It is a unifying and rallying point for this type of informatics innovation and one that will need sustainable funding to be effective – to improve the health of all Virginians. This is not a consumer/patient-based system; it is for agencies and organizations to share and exchange data and information.

In December 2020, Virginia Governor Northam announced that $10 million in CARES funding would be allocated to create Unite Virginia. The Administration invested CARES Act funds to establish a public health infrastructure of care navigation between health and social services organizations, including hospitals. Unite Virginia has made significant progress since December 2020 and is up and running in multiple localities. Virginians are being connected to the multitude of social services that are critical for pandemic recovery. The current contract expires in June 2022, so having FY23 funding secured this calendar year will help the Administration further build the network and secure a long-term financing plan. The partner organizations governing Unite Virginia have since requested another $5.5 million for FY23 and beyond.

Unite Virginia: https://virginia.uniteus.com/

Discuss thoughts about funding a public health informatics system. What is the economic value of Unite Virginia? What factors do you think are most important for its ongoing implementation? Explain your point of view using relevant economic models from the attached Chapter 12 (pages 321-331). What aspects of security and privacy are in place in Unite Virginia, as best as you can determine from exploring the software technology (https://uniteus.com/)? Describe the types of risk that the Unite Virginia platform should be aware of and how the data should be anonymized. What should the sustainability plan be for Unite Virginia beyond federal funding when it runs out; who pays for it to continue? What organizational and administrative factors should be considered to keep the platform operational and geared toward institutionalization for population health improvement?

1. Word count: 550-600

2. References should be less than 7 years old and at least 7 peer-reviewed journal articles or reputable websites. Sources like Newspapers, Wikipedia are unacceptable for use as a reference.

3. PLEASE use the current APA MANUAL for referencing.

4. Full coursebook is attached for reference