N.O. Beacon study puts relationships before technology

A study of New Orleans’ Beacon Community demonstrates how community relationships are essential when introducing and sustaining technology in healthcare settings.

Researchers from the Louisiana Public Health Institute examined the Greater New Orleans area healthcare system, which required rebuilding following the Hurricane Katrina disaster. In 2010, the city received a three-year $13.5 million Beacon grant, which was called the Crescent City Beacon Community (CCBC), to demonstrate population health improvement through the use of health IT by lowering the burden of chronic disease, primarily diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The researchers looked at how the CCBC built partnerships to transform the system, and how health IT interventions were selected by a community to improve the continuity of care and ultimately health outcomes—and well as challenges faced.

The researchers identified the following health IT implementation efforts that should be prioritized:

• Adapting a conceptual framework;
• Building community partnerships;
• Creating a governance infrastructure of stakeholders, particularly with those who have a history of working together; and
• Developing a "learning community" to share best practices and guidelines.

“Building and developing community partnerships takes time and effort; however, these relationships are necessary and essential to introducing and sustaining new technologies in a healthcare setting and should be a first step for any organization looking to accomplish such goals,” concluded the authors.