First stakeholder meeting

On Wednesday September 3, 2014 the Center for Technology in Government hosted the first stakeholder meeting that brought together industry, subject matter experts, researchers, university administration, and government practitioners to discuss the vision for a SUNY-wide clinical data resource. The meeting, funded through a planning grant award from the SUNY Network of Excellence, is the first of four to be held over the next year.

The SUNY system has a particularly valuable set of data that SUNY faculty and providers use to deliver care to a large number of patients throughout New York State. These disparate data can be a critical resource for research, particularly if they can be combined and subsequently linked to other public health data and knowledge bases. A repository of this nature, due to its size and scope, has the possibility of being a key asset for SUNY educational programs and would position SUNY as a leader in health research.

The planning grant team has started to examine questions such as: what does SUNY-wide clinical data mean? One goal of the planning team is to understand this environment better and to start making connections across campuses. The meeting at CTG focused on envisioning an ideal repository, the technical, social, and political challenges in creating a repository, and the resources needed. Participants also identified additional stakeholders that need to be involved in the process of creating a roadmap.

The team also plans to document the existing electronic health record systems used by SUNY campuses. These types of inputs will be important for developing a comprehensive roadmap. The next stakeholder meeting will be held at SUNY Upstate sometime in November/December 2014.