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Erica Matti of CHRT and Joshua Legler from the National Emergency Medical Services Information System’s (NEMSIS) Technical Assistance Center gave a session at HIMSS24 explaining the significance of accurate data in EMS for effective patient care. The session emphasized the indispensable role of emergency medical services (EMS) in providing valuable insights into social determinants of health (SDOH) and stressed the urgency of healthcare synergy. You can find it here: Tapping into the trove of standardized EMS data  | Healthcare IT News

Matti shared her experience using EMS data for SDOH measures, highlighting its practical application. “Often, EMS clinicians are the first point of contact for people with emerging healthcare needs,” Matti explained, noting that they can provide nuanced insights into issues like housing instability, surpassing conventional assessments. This real-world application of EMS data underscores its potential to improve healthcare delivery and public health surveillance.

The ultimate goal is to match EMS patients to the state of Michigan’s master person index, says Matti, which would enhance patient matching and care quality through bidirectional data exchange. Moreover, initiatives like the NEMSIS EMS interoperability task force seek to align EMS data with the principled Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, fostering even broader connectivity and participation.

Integrating holds transformative potential, providing unparalleled insights into community-level health and social needs, Matti explains. “There’s no other area of healthcare where this level of info is available at the community level, and it’s a relatively untapped source of health and social needs data.”