Show Notes
In this episode of the InOn Health podcast, Carrie Paykoç, director of the Office of eHealth Innovation in Colorado, joins KP to discuss the intersection of public policy and technology and how it works to support all Coloradans for their health and wellbeing.
Before joining Colorado’s Office of eHealth Innovation, Carrie previously held various positions in non-profit organizations, healthcare startups, and tech companies. The Office of eHealth Innovation launched in 2015 through executive order to establish strategy, policy, coordinate funding across Colorado. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the office primarily focused on implementing projects and initiatives to fulfill Colorado’s health priorities. The Office of eHealth Innovation developed the state strategy in 2017, creating a roadmap for initiatives and developing methods to measure progress. Carrie outlines two primary initiatives:
1) Advancing health information exchange and data sharing
2) Aligning and advancing care coordination to support communities and infrastructure for delivering information effectively
These initiatives enabled more agility and flexibility regarding prompt responses during a public health crisis. Carrie outlines the purpose of health information exchange, which focuses on stewarding information to various healthcare providers to ensure understanding of the patient to ensure necessary service and support. She addresses current challenges to instill the best delivery methods, which involves catching up to current technology standards based on current rules, regulations, and interpretations of when and how information is shared (policy constraints).
Carrie provides an overview of social health information exchange—regardless of record or application, information can be exchanged freely. This concept addresses someone’s needs like housing and food while assessing adequate and available resources. Carrie discusses how health equity can evolve to serve everyone—assess policy, laws, and rules—and examine the barriers in place. If so, create the necessary change to prevent poor outcomes and situations. An opportunity to advance health equity involves enabling access to healthcare affordably and effectively through sharing information and appropriate services and treatments when/where needed.
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What is InOn Health Podcast?
Health equity issues in our country have been around for decades – largely impacting communities of color and rural areas. When it comes to economic and racial disparities in health the evidence is clear. This is more than a hot topic. Covid-19 has exposed the underbelly of how social determinants of health and racial disparities play out in our country. What we need now is to impart lasting change.
Welcome to the InOn Health podcast. I’m your host Kaakpema Yelpaala, and I’m the co-founder and CEO of InOn Health.
In this podcast we’re going to be talking about health equity. We’ll be talking to entrepreneurs, thought leaders, investors, and other industry experts in healthcare and public health. The topics we’ll cover will range from racial disparities in health to digital innovation for diverse populations, and ultimately how we build better policy to more inclusively serve everyone around their healthcare needs.
Join me on this podcast series to not only be inspired by our leaders but also to get insight on how we can all take action.