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ABSTRACT INFORMATION
Title: 'Connecting EHDI Data to Medical Homes through an Integrated Data System'
Track: 5 - Medical Home
Keyword(s): medical home, loss to follow-up/documentation, audiology reporting, data system
Learning Objectives:
  1. Describe how integrating EHDI with other public health data can connect EHDI data with medical homes
  2. Identify a method for engaging medical homes in EHDI follow-up using on-line reports

Abstract:

Close to 100% of infants born in Rhode Island are screened for hearing loss by one month of age. Results from the newborn hearing screen, as well as follow-up recommendations, are made available on-line to primary care providers through an integrated child health information system called KIDSNET. Despite significant effort, many infants remain lost to follow-up/documentation, particularly those with risk factors who passed the newborn hearing screen. In addition to individual level EHDI data, KIDSNET contains information on the medical home for each child. The intended primary care provider is collected at birth and is updated when a vaccination is reported to KIDSNET, which also serves as the state immunization information system. Two-way communication between KIDSNET and the EHDI database (RITRACK) provided the opportunity to create reports for primary care providers that list the EHDI follow-up needs of their patients making it unnecessary to look each infant up individually. The report includes the service each child needs, such as out patient initial screen, rescreen, diagnostic auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing, or audiological monitoring at six months due to risk factors. These new summary reports will be available on-line but are also sent directly to the medical home by the state EHDI program, eliminating the need for action on their part. Reports have been sent quarterly since December 2012. A description of the data exchange, the report, and initial positive findings demonstrating an increase in audiology appointments and diagnostic results reported since the initiation of this Primary Care Provider Report will be presented.
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PRESENTER(S) / AUTHOR(S) INFORMATION
Ellen Amore - Primary Presenter,Author
RI Dept. of Health
     Credentials: MS
      Ellen is currently the Manager of KIDSNET, Rhode Island’s Integrated Child Health Information System that contains preventive health care (including EHDI) information for Rhode Island children. Other programs at the Rhode Island Department of Health that she has managed include Newborn Hearing Screening, Newborn Bloodspot Screening, Newborn Developmental Risk Assessment and home visiting. Prior to coming to Rhode Island, she was a Program Assistant at the University of Connecticut Center for Environmental Health, and worked on several health related research studies at the University of Connecticut and Yale University. Her education includes a BA in Human Biology, with a concentration in child development, from Stanford University, and an MS in Maternal and Child Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.
      ASHA DISCLOSURE:

Financial - No relevant financial relationship exist.

Nonfinancial - No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist.
Elsbeth Brown - Author
RI Parent Information Network
     Credentials: AS
      Elsbeth is the Family Resource Specialist for the Rhode Island Hearing Assessment program. Elsbeth is the Mom of two snd has a son who has profound hearing loss.
      ASHA DISCLOSURE:

Financial - No relevant financial relationship exist.

Nonfinancial - No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist.
Betty Vohr - Author
Women & Infants Hospital
     Credentials: MD
     Other Affiliations: Association of University Centers on Disabilities.
      Betty R. Vohr, MD has been the director of Women & Infants Hospital’s Neonatal Follow-up Clinic since 1974 and medical director of the Rhode Island Hearing Assessment Program since 1990. She has been the national coordinator of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Neonatal Research Network follow-up studies since 1990. Dr. Vohr’s primary clinical and research interests focus on improving the long-term outcomes of high-risk premature infants and infants with hearing loss. Dr. Vohr is currently participating in studies investigating the outcomes of premature infants and the outcomes of infants with hearing loss. She has published 200 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, as well as numerous textbook chapters and has been an invited speaker throughout the country and the world. Dr. Vohr played an instrumental role in the development of the Rhode Island Hearing Assessment Program (RIHAP), which was established in 1990. Based at Women & Infants, RIHAP became the first public health program in the United States to achieve universal newborn hearing screening for all infants born in Rhode Island. After the project gained momentum, Dr. Vohr and her colleagues were invited to present the findings at an NIH Consensus Development Conference, which subsequently recommended that all babies in the United States be screened for hearing loss. She is a recipient of the Antonia Brancia Maxon award for EHDI Excellence, has served as a member of the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing, and recently received the Stan and Mavis Graven’s Leadership Award for Outstanding Contributions to Enhancing the Physical and Developmental Environment for High-Risk Infants and their Families.
      ASHA DISCLOSURE:

Financial - No relevant financial relationship exist.

Nonfinancial - No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist.
Tunisia Johnson - Author
Rhode Island Hearing Assessment Program
     Credentials: AuD
      Tunisia Johnson, AuD, CCC-A is the Audiologist Administrator of the Rhode Island Hearing Assessment Program (RIHAP). Dr. Johnson is an alumnus of Hampton University and Syracuse University, where she received her Doctorate in Audiology. Prior to her arrival to RIHAP, Dr. Johnson was a clinical audiologist in the Washington, DC area and a Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) fellow.
      ASHA DISCLOSURE:

Financial - Receives Salary for Employment from Women & Infants Hospital.  

Nonfinancial - No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist.
Fiordaliza Then - Author
RI Dept of Health
     Credentials: MD
      Liza received a Doctor in Medicine from Universidad Iberoamericana School of Medicine in the Dominican Republic. She is currently the state EHDI coordinator for Rhode Island. She previously worked as a CNA, a parent consultant, and a WIC Community Liaison.
      ASHA DISCLOSURE:

Financial -

Nonfinancial -
Richard Lupino - Author
RI Dept of Health
     Credentials: AS
      Rich recieved an AS degrees from Community College of RI in Chemistry and an AS from New England Tech in Computer Science. He currently is the data manager for the Rhode Island EHDI data, as well as for other newborn and early childhood datasets.
      ASHA DISCLOSURE:

Financial -

Nonfinancial -
Rebecca Vargas - Author
RIHAP, Women & Infants' Hospital
     Credentials: .
      Rebecca is the follow-up coordinator at the Rhode Island Hearing Assessment Program.
      ASHA DISCLOSURE:

Financial - No relevant financial relationship exist.

Nonfinancial - No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist.