Editor’s note: Mark Ghaly is the secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency.
California’s legacy is defined in part by its pioneering spirit. Now, the state is again aiming to strengthen progress as we look to improve healthcare in California with the Data Exchange Framework (DxF).
The vision of the DxF is simple yet significant: Every Californian, no matter where they live, should be able to walk into a doctor’s office, a county social services agency or an emergency room and be assured that their providers can access the information needed to provide safe, effective, whole-person care.
The law, which was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and went into effect Jan. 31, marked the start of statewide, secure exchange of health and social services information. The DxF is a first-ever mandate to integrate our state’s health and social services information exchange to better serve all Californians.
This effort has been led at lightning speed by the California Health & Human Services Agency’s Center for Data Insights and Innovation, with strong engagement and support from our partners, including stakeholders, providers, payers and advocacy organizations.
The DxF is unique from the typical exchange of health information as it connects California health and social services, ensuring providers get the whole picture of an individual’s health and well-being, empowering providers to deliver a set of fully informed decisions, interventions and services.
Achieving this level of exchange while keeping data private and secure is not an easy task. Despite modern technology being capable of secure data exchange, some medical information is still stored on paper, siloed and disparate. This results in fragmented patient care, delayed access to information, a lack of coordination among providers and separation from social services.
To overcome these challenges, the DxF establishes a common set of policies, responsibilities and obligations for secure data exchange — and also requires new connections between health and social services. The DxF ensures patient information remains private and secure — it is not a new technology or centralized data repository. Instead, it is an agreement to follow the “rules of the road” to accelerate and expand safe, secure and real-time information sharing.
This type of information sharing at this scale is transformative and disruptive to the enduring health and social inequities many experience in our state. By ensuring both health and social services providers can and must participate in the exchange, the DxF centers the vital role that social determinants of health play in an individual’s well-being and seeks to address them by facilitating connection to critical resources.
For all Californians, an integrated system also increases provider coordination, and as more and more entities adopt the DxF, patients will find their own health data more and more accessible. Modern health information systems foster greater participation by patients in their own healthcare decisions, which leads to better outcomes.
We believe the impact of the Data Exchange Framework promotes equity, enables continuous, whole-person care, empowers providers and modernizes the patient experience. The state and our partners will continue building on this progress and lead California into an era of modern healthcare, driven by our commitment to a Healthy California for All.
For all of our accomplishments implementing the DxF over the past two and a half years, there is still more work to be done. While thousands of health and social services entities are set to begin exchange, some are still adapting to this new reality, while other smaller entities have until 2026 to join the DxF. We are working alongside these remaining entities to ensure full compliance, successful implementation and participation as quickly as possible.