About: How was the Blueprint Developed? A Collaborative Process

The delivery, payment, management, and improvement of healthcare is conducted by many, many organizations in our healthcare system, including clinicians, employers and healthcare purchasers, health plans, hospitals and other providers, laboratories, pharmacies, pharmaceutical and device manufacturers, public health agencies, state and regional leaders, government at the federal and state levels, and most importantly, patients and their caregivers.

Because the healthcare system is so fragmented, collaboration across the multiple stakeholders in healthcare is crucial to defining and implementing solutions that are not only patient-centric, but also work within the system.

Research indicates that those who have been successful with health IT and health information exchange implementation have done so because they have built “social capital,” or a radius of trust that enables divergent interests to come together for a common cause to improve health and healthcare —despite market pressures to do otherwise.¹

In the spirit of building social capital and supporting a collaborative agenda for change, the eHI Blueprint was developed through a process led by eHI’s multi-stakeholder leadership with the hands-on involvement of eHI’s members—individuals and organizations representing nearly every stakeholder in healthcare, including those who deliver care; manage care; pay for care; protect the public’s health; lead collaborative efforts at the state and local level; those who develop tools, services and therapies to support improvements in healthcare, and finally, and most importantly, those who receive healthcare—consumers.

Multi-stakeholder committees, co-chaired by members of eHI’s Leadership Council, developed the content for each of the five focus areas. Committees met over a six-month period to discuss gaps and barriers to progress, develop guiding principles for moving forward, and identify practical strategies and actions, including timelines, that will support a common path forward.