Master Person Index (MPI) is a key component for public health to effectively consolidate reported communicable cases from electronic health records or health information exchange (HIE) to advance investigation and surveillance. This panel addresses common challenges to implement a MPI from a state and local health department’s perspective in relationship with two statewide practices: The Indiana HIE and Utah Secure Patient Directory network. A learning community of MPI implementation has emerged from those collaborations.

Master Person Index (MPI) is needed to create a virtual health record in health information exchange and case investigation or population health analytics. How to plan and implement a MPI has been a major challenge for public health. Denise Love, MBA, Executive Director, National Association of Health Data Organizations will introduce the panel with a review of various needs for a MPI and readiness to implement a MPI among public health agencies.

P. Joseph Gibson, MPH, Ph.D., Director of Epidemiology, Marion County Public Health Department will present “Master Patient Indexes: a Core Component of Data Exchange Networks." He will describe the MPI’s place among other components within a data exchange system. Dr. Gibson will discuss the use of an MPI within the Indiana Health Information Exchange (HIE) and discuss the Marion County Public Health Department’s plan to use an MPI for health service and epidemiologic surveillance.  The presentation will focus on important implementation issues and questions to answer in planning a MPI.

Wu Xu, PhD, Director for Public Health Informatics in Utah Department of Health, will present the UDOH’s implementation of the statewide Secure Patient Directory (sSPD) network developed by the University of Utah-led, NIH-funded collaborative research project. As one of the data contributors to the sSPD, UDOH is adopting the sSPD open source architecture and technology into a public health SPD with eight data sources. Dr. Xu will discuss policy issues for both phSPD and sSPD, especially data sharing agreements and governance issues within the UDOH and among the state, University of Utah, Intermountain Healthcare, and the state designated HIE entity.  Protection of patient privacy and choices will be discussed as well. The panel will end with open discussion on whether a MPI learning community can enhance public health performance in adopting or implementing MPIs.