Project Name:

National Vital Statistics System Modernization — New Opportunities for Interoperable Data

Contractor: Clinovations Government + Health

Lessons Learned

Between January 2024 – March 2024, there were many lessons learned that can be grouped into the following categories: Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) package timeline; workshop and outreach planning; and project approach.

OMB PRA PACKAGE TIMELINE:

Preparing an OMB PRA package takes time (e.g., performing a literature scan, having preliminary federal stakeholder discussions). A key lesson learned is to allot for sufficient project time to plan, develop, and submit an OMB PRA package,

WORKSHOP AND OUTREACH PLANNING:

When planning for workshops it is a good idea to account for non-response and no-shows to allow for maximum participation as requested in the OMB PRA package.

Lastly, for outreach and engagement strategy, individualized personal emails seem to have a greater response than emails sent in bulk format (e.g., sending generic invitation emails to multiple invited participants using the BCC line).

PROJECT APPROACH:

Although not the strategy implemented by the team, the lesson learned was that it may have been better to complete the Federal stakeholder interviews and the landscape analysis prior to the planning, development, and submission of the PRA package. In the case of this project, the information gleaned from the Federal stakeholder interviews and landscape analysis will serve as background and supporting information in the Final Report and would have informed the development of the OMB PRA package (e.g., the discussion topics/questions within the discussion guide).

  1. Interoperable aggregated data are commonly used to obtain population-level insights. Interoperable vital statistics can also provide individual-level insights, especially for use cases that require the identification of individuals (e.g., voter, driver, social security, judiciary).
  2. Opportunities for interoperable data exchange can be categorized into five general themes – data access and exchange, data granularity and quality, data standardization, data timeliness, and interoperability between IT systems.
  3. The NVSS system is a model data ecosystem that can be used to derive findings and insights for a future, potential National Secure Data Service (NSDS). Applicable traits and characteristics include:
    • Clear governance structure: NVSS does not own the data – the state owns the data;
    • Clear reporting requirements: NVSS requires the reporting of data elements for reporting purposes at regular intervals;
    • Standardized dataset: NVSS requires the reporting of a standardized set of data elements; and
    • Stakeholder engagement: NVSS is used by both healthcare and non-healthcare stakeholders for various use cases.

 

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Disclaimer: America’s DataHub Consortium (ADC), a public-private partnership, implements research opportunities that support the strategic objectives of the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) within the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). These results document research funded through ADC and is being shared to inform interested parties of ongoing activities and to encourage further discussion. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed above do not necessarily reflect the views of NCSES or NSF. Please send questions to ncsesweb@nsf.gov.