Background

Medical examiner and coroner offices conduct medicolegal death investigations (MDIs) to determine the cause and manner of sudden unexpected deaths. MDI offices play a crucial role in monitoring emergent and routine public health issues and collecting data that contributes to saving lives.

Increasing deaths from drug overdoses, suicides, homicides and more have resulted in MDI offices with record caseloads. Likewise, outdated methods of sharing MDI data, like faxing and paper-based systems, are inefficient and resource-intensive. Manual data entry at each agency may lead to errors and delay public health’s ability to use the data for response.

Through collaboration with data sharing partners, software vendors and others, MDI offices are implementing standards-based data exchange. Through the automation of workflows and integration of data sources, electronic information exchange is improving the timeliness and completeness of death investigation. Modernizing MDI data practices improves public health’s ability to monitor evolving health trends and create data-driven interventions to save lives without increasing burden on these offices.

MDI Connect can help.

MDI Connect is a forum for medical examiners’ and coroners’ offices, their data sharing partners and software vendors to work with their peers and subject matter experts to design, build and test standards-based data exchange practices. Using the data standard FHIR^®—Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, pronounced “fire”—allows for both scalability and information sharing across partners from public health, public safety, toxicology and health systems using a defined set of tools. MDI Connect is dedicated to advancing solutions that simplify data sharing between MDI offices and their partners. Scalable solutions will reduce inefficiencies, decrease the amount of staff time needed in an MDI office to exchange data and minimize duplicative reporting processes. These solutions could also improve how toxicology results are reported and providing data to state vital records offices and other public health surveillance systems.

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MDI Connect provides support.

A LEARNING COLLABORATIVE

Engage in peer-to-peer networking and learning activities. MDI offices and others share insights on data-exchange practices in virtual and in-person forums.

AN INCUBATOR FOR INNOVATIVE PROJECTS

Form data sharing partnerships to implement standards-based data exchange and design innovative solutions in a real-world setting.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE HUB

Discuss implementation challenges and receive support with standards-based data exchange and information technology adoption through office hours, virtual testing events and more.

Explore real-world examples of MDI data exchange projects currently being implemented.

Explore the playlist highlighting MDI data exchange projects.

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MDI Connect collaborates.

Public health, public safety, health care and other agencies use MDI data daily to improve and coordinate efforts to save lives. Modernizing information technology can help build a mortality data ecosystem that provides more timely health surveillance without increasing the burden on MDI offices.

MDI Connect is also coordinating with the broader MDI community to build awareness of this data modernization initiative. Professional organizations such as the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) and the International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners (IACME) actively support and promote MDI Connect to address the pressing need for streamlined data-sharing across multiple agencies.

MDI Connect innovates.

MDI offices and Case Management System (CMS) vendors are developing and testing data sharing solutions between various systems and stakeholders including:

• Electronic Death Registration System (EDRS)
• Toxicology Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS)
• National/State Violent Death Reporting System (N/SVDRS)
• State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS)
• Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program (ODMAP)
• MDI CMS and other surveillance systems, data systems or public facing dashboards
• Organ Procurement Organization (OPO)

VIEW EXAMPLES OF THESE SYSTEMS IN ACTION

To learn more about MDI Connect and the MDI Data Modernization Initiative (DMI), view the FAQ.

MDI Connect Participation and Funding Questions

This project is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $2,726,393.00 with 57 percentage funded by CDC/HHS through Medical Examiner and Coroner Data Modernization Implementer's Group and $2,097,363.00 and 43 percentage funded by non-government source(s). The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government.

Soon-to-be parents and their babies deserve the healthiest start possible. But maternal and infant deaths in the United States are still higher than any other developed nation, while black women are dying at twice the rate of white women. Public health is taking on these issues through several promising programs.

Perinatal Quality Collaboratives (PQCs) are networks of multidisciplinary teams made up of clinicians, providers, public health leaders, patients, families and others who work together on plans to improve health outcomes for pregnant women and infants in the U.S. Every state, as well as Washington, DC, has a PQC that meets to identify health care processes and clinical practices that could be strengthened and then begins to implement quality improvement (QI) initiatives, using the best available methods to effect change as quickly as possible. QI initiatives advance evidence-based clinical practices within health care centers and systems across states and across the nation. Learn more about how PQCs are working together to improve maternal outcomes.

The CDC Foundation, in partnership with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is also helping PQCs learn how to evaluate their QI initiatives to make sure they’re meeting their goals. The webinar series below is designed to advise PQC staff and partners on how to perform evaluations, plan for and implement evaluations and ensure the findings are put into practice to improve QI initiatives.

CDC-funded PQCs can also register for targeted group assistance through office hours.