Health Trends Across Communities in Minnesota (HTAC-MN) dashboards of summary EHR data
Good planning requires good data. Health Trends Across Communities in Minnesota (HTAC-MN) helps local public health agencies tap into existing electronic health record (EHR) data, to supplement work on community health assessment and planning, policy development, and more. This unique data collaboration of health systems and local and state public health is led in partnership by the Minnesota Electronic Health Records (EHR) Consortium, the Center for Community Health, and Hennepin County.
The project provides accessible, timely, and detailed community health interactive dashboards using summary electronic health records data, tracking several key physical and behavioral health indicators. HTAC-MN includes summary health encounter and diagnosis data from 11 health systems in Minnesota, representing about 90% of health care use by Minnesotans. |
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With projects like HTAC-MN, local public health agencies can tap into EHR data while freeing up staff time and capacity to do what they do best—gather local population-level data on social determinants of health and policy, systems, and environmental change.
“I see this helping us reshape our community health assessment process. Instead of 30 questions asking, ‘Have you been diagnosed with XYZ,’ we can focus on asking questions aligned with social determinants of health.”
– Center for Community Health Assessment and Alignment Committee / MDH Regional Data Practice Group
How does this project challenge the status quo?
HTAC-MN maintains patient privacy because health systems aggregate EHR data before it even leaves the health system, and no individual records ever enter HTAC-MN. HTAC-MN also shows that health systems that may be seen as competitors can be collaborators when there’s a common goal.
How does this project center equity?
We know that health is shaped by factors beyond the doctor’s office, and using existing EHR data allows local public health agencies to devote time and energy to collecting data on social determinants of health, especially those that impact marginalized communities—because if we can’t measure it, we can’t change it.
What could other agencies learn from this?
Collaboration relies on relationships, but relationships don’t rely on grant funding—it’s never too soon to build trust and relationships with partners that are needed to tackle common goals.
Learn more
Health Trends Across Communities in Minnesota (MN EHR Consortium)
July 30, 2024 webinar:
All About Health Trends Across Communities in Minnesota (HTAC-MN):
Using EHR Data to Advance Community Health
Thank you to Jessica Jeruzal, Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute, for contributing important information and context to this story.
Olmsted County Public Health and data-sharing agreements across southeastern Minnesota
Minnesota’s larger counties often have more staff and greater capacity to collect, analyze, and share population health data, but our access to accurate, reliable, and timely data shouldn’t depend on where we live. Smaller counties need good data, too, but can’t support a full or even partial data expert to do this important work.
Olmsted County Public Health, in partnership with neighboring jurisdictions in southeast Minnesota, is exploring whether larger health departments can support their smaller regional neighbors in population data, epidemiology, and assessment and planning efforts—and possibly increase an entire region’s data capacity.
A series of county-level dashboards highlight population health data across different topics and data sources and, in addition to showing data and trends, provide context on what the data means and how it could be interpreted. |
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This project is grounded in relationships across organizations, jurisdictions, and the southeast region itself—vital groundwork that takes time but isn’t always supported by other funding sources.
“[Sharing regional data capacity] has provided access to data that we would not have had so easily, or possible not at all. It is an ideal example of how regions can cooperate to build capacity for all.”
– Local health director, southeast Minnesota
How does this project challenge the status quo?
Local agencies may only be able to hire a partial FTE to do data work, if they can fund a position at all—this regional collaboration allows agencies to use economies of scale for data collection and analysis, and the region retains knowledge and expertise specific to the region and its unique needs. This project also allows those data staff to mentor and connect with each other across geography, building skills and knowledge, as they work together on behalf of an entire region. Software needed to collect, analyze, and share data is expensive, may not be supported by smaller IT departments, or requires complex data analysis skills—working regionally can allow agencies to share that cost and leverage the IT support of a larger county, instead of shouldering it alone.
“[This project] is enormously beneficial in informing the work we are doing and addressing the needs and trends unique to our county and region, not just at the state level.”
– Local health director, southeast Minnesota
How does this project center equity?
Every health department needs to be able to look beyond averages in data and identify where there are differences in health outcomes. Regional collaboration can help people across a larger area gain access to population health data about where they live and the communities they serve, regardless of the size of their community or health department. In addition, a regional approach gives counties a more localized baseline to which they can compare county-level data, because county-level trends for demographics and social determinants of health can differ even within the same region.
What could other agencies learn from this?
Building infrastructure for sharing data regionally is about more than just technology systems—a strong infrastructure of relationships and partnerships undergirds data work. Because of this, staff supporting data work can’t just have data and analysis skills that they use behind closed doors—they also need to have the skill and capacity to build relationships across jurisdictions and organizations, and train frontline public health staff how to use the data. This relationship-building takes time, but staff don’t need to wait until data systems are set up to start connecting and networking—things like data-sharing agreements, recruiting staff, and brainstorming how to share staff can happen ahead of time so organizations are ready to hit the ground running when data systems are ready.
Learn more
Olmsted County Pilots a Regional Population Health Data Hub to Improve Data Accessibility (Association of State and Territorial Health Officials)
Thank you to Jenny Passer, Olmsted County Public Health, for contributing important information and context to this story.
Carlton-Cook-Lake-St. Louis Community Health Board regional data, planning, and communications team
Even though public health experts can (and do) harness population health data to support the health and wellness of their communities, having access to good data isn’t enough. Agencies and staff need the tools to put data into practice, using it for data-informed decision-making, evaluation, competitive funding applications, and everyday work.
The Carlton-Cook-Lake-St. Louis Community Health Board has developed a regional data, planning, and communications team, which supports the building blocks of public health practice across programs and jurisdictions. This team builds cohesion and continuity across areas that might not otherwise be directly linked programmatically on the back end, but are perceived by the public on the front end as a single public health entity, and need to engage the public and communicate with consistency. |
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This type of capacity-building helps “glue” a department’s programs, activities, and topics together—in Carlton-Cook-Lake-St. Louis’ case, through activities like hosting a regional data equity training, using the We All Count data equity framework for the regional Bridge to Health community health assessment survey, initiating a data inventory, and identifying shared regional indicators for the community health board’s community health improvement plan.
Strengthening a health agency’s connective tissue in these ways requires investment—in the staff and time required to collect, analyze, interpret, share, and make decisions with data; in creating policies and expectations to apply data ethically and consistently; in training staff to ensure everyone’s operating within the same set of roles, responsibilities, and expectations; and more.
How does this project center equity?
Carlton-Cook-Lake-St. Louis Community Health Board staff have learned to build equity into their work from the ground up so that it’s not just a buzzword, but leads to meaningful change—staff work with partners to ensure everyone is “speaking the same language” when it comes to data, so that data better reflects community priorities and decisions.
What could other agencies learn from this?
It’s vital that public health agencies listen to communities and ask questions before and during planning, and not just at the end—engaging populations in a meaningful way helps ensure they’re reflected in the end product. By bringing communities along during planning, public health agencies can build public trust and support not just for their agency, but for the field of public health as a whole.
Learn more
Building Public Health Infrastructure
(Carlton-Cook-Lake-St. Louis Community Health Board)
Thank you to Stephany Medina and Susan Michels, Carlton-Cook-Lake-St. Louis Community Health Board, for contributing important information and context to this story.
About Minnesota’s local innovation projects and Infrastructure Fund
The Minnesota Legislature provides $6 million in annual funding for local and Tribal health departments to strengthen the public health system and create a system for the 21st century.
Funded projects will provide insight into the most efficient and effective ways to ensure Minnesota's statewide public health system has the expertise, skills, and capabilities it needs to meet new and emerging public health challenges.
Learn more
Innovation Projects - Infrastructure Fund (Minnesota Department of Health)
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