This past fall, Connecting for Better Health was proud to co-host the 2023 Annual California
Data Exchange Framework (DxF) Summit alongside the California Health and Human Services’
Center for Data Insights and Innovation, California Health Care Foundation, and Manifest
MedEx. Health and policy leaders from more than 85 agencies, associations, health plans, and
health and social service organizations gathered to discuss implementation of the DxF,
California data sharing initiatives, and their impact on health outcomes in California.
The opening keynotes featured views from Washington D.C. and Sacramento on efforts to
advance the national Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) and
California’s DxF initiative, in coordination with CalAIM (California’s Medicaid transformation),
public health data infrastructure, and California’s health equity goals.
Data Exchange Framework (DxF) Summit alongside the California Health and Human Services’
Center for Data Insights and Innovation, California Health Care Foundation, and Manifest
MedEx. Health and policy leaders from more than 85 agencies, associations, health plans, and
health and social service organizations gathered to discuss implementation of the DxF,
California data sharing initiatives, and their impact on health outcomes in California.
The opening keynotes featured views from Washington D.C. and Sacramento on efforts to
advance the national Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) and
California’s DxF initiative, in coordination with CalAIM (California’s Medicaid transformation),
public health data infrastructure, and California’s health equity goals.
The TEFCA Opportunity
Micky Tripathi, PhD, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Office of the
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), delivered the first keynote with
updates and insights on TEFCA, a national initiative with three specific goals:
1. Establishment of a universal governance, policy, and technical floor for nationwide
interoperability.
2. Simplify connectivity for organizations to securely exchange information to improve
patient care, enhance the welfare of populations, and generate health care value.
3. Enable individuals to gather their own health care information.
To accomplish these goals, ONC’s priorities include building the digital foundation, launching
initiatives that make interoperability easy, and promoting clinical information sharing, all of which
can additionally support state-led initiatives, such as California’s DxF.
Tripathi acknowledged that there is still much work to be done – from enabling individual access
to integrating social services data, adopting ADT alerts, and enabling research entities – and 2024
will be a landmark year as the first TEFCA Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs) go live
with Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) exchange.
DxF Leadership, Locally and Nationally
California’s DxF will expand the secure and appropriate exchange of health and social services
information (HSSI), giving providers and care teams a clearer understanding of a patient’s full
history and the information needed to provide and coordinate patient-centered care. Marko
Mijic, MPP, Undersecretary, California Health and Human Services Agency, joined Tripathi at
the Summit to highlight how the DxF connects the dots between three major tenets of whole
person care: health services, social services, and public health.
For CalAIM in particular, fostering the exchange of HSSI between managed care plans, health care and social service providers, behavioral health providers, jails and correctional facilities, and more is critical in improving health outcomes for Medi-Cal members.
The Annual California DxF Summit celebrated the momentum gained this past year through state and federal efforts and set the groundwork for the future of HSSI exchange to improve health outcomes in California.
