ORLANDO – During a fireside chat style discussion at HIMSS24 on Wednesday, "Achieving Equity through Coordinated Healthcare," experts discussed how exchanging health information can bridge gaps in health equity and the innovations transforming healthcare access. 

Michael Jackson, VP and global head of industries at DocuSign. moderated a discussion with Luis Belen, CEO of the National Health IT Collaborative for the Underserved (NHIT), and Stanley Campbell, CEO of EagleForce Associates, focused on honing in on social determinants of health as a way to improve community access and healthcare for underserved communities. 

NHIT looks to achieve this by working with state health information exchanges to work from the bottom to the top to reach community partners looking to utilize data, while not straining already fatigued resources. 

“Data for the sake of data is useless unless we are using it to leverage social determinants and improve community health. We have found broadband access is a super determinant of health, meaning it far outweighs other social determinants of health,” said Belen.

Key takeaways from the health equity discussion include the need to ensure underserved communities are not left behind as technology increasingly becomes intertwined with healthcare organizations, and sharing data regardless of the size of community partners. 

Another key takeaway was the importance of realizing the value of different communities and uplifting the strengths in those communities rather than focusing on the weaknesses in certain health sectors.