Rural Northern Border Region Network Planning Program - As the convener of the Genesee-Orleans-Wyoming Rural Health Network (GOW RHN), Western New York Rural Area Health Education Center (R-AHEC) proposes a 12-month planning project to develop a Regional Health Data Infrastructure Plan that will strengthen the rural healthcare system serving Genesee, Orleans, and Wyoming Counties in Western New York. The project aligns with Legislative Aim #3: Strengthen the Rural Health Care System by creating a coordinated regional framework for identifying, collecting, governing, and sharing health and workforce data that supports data-informed decision-making, cross-sector collaboration, and future system improvements. The three-county service area is home to approximately 136,000 residents living in geographically dispersed rural communities characterized by healthcare workforce shortages, limited specialty care, transportation barriers, aging populations, and persistent health disparities. All three counties are federally designated Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), and community health assessments have identified ongoing challenges related to access to primary care, behavioral health, dental care, and specialty services. Although healthcare providers, hospitals, public health agencies, behavioral health organizations, and community partners collect valuable health-related information, the region currently lacks a coordinated system to inventory available data, identify critical data gaps, establish common data standards, and securely share information to support regional planning and decision-making. Through this planning project, GOW RHN will convene healthcare providers, public health agencies, behavioral health organizations, and other community stakeholders to assess the current regional data landscape and develop an implementation-ready framework for a sustainable regional health data infrastructure. Major activities include conducting a regional inventory of existing data assets, identifying unmet data needs, engaging stakeholders through focus groups and planning sessions, completing a comprehensive gap analysis, developing data governance policies and data-sharing recommendations, establishing standardized data definitions and reporting procedures, designing specifications for a regional performance dashboard, piloting key components of the proposed framework, and developing a long-term sustainability and implementation roadmap. By the conclusion of the project period, GOW RHN will have developed a comprehensive Regional Health Data Infrastructure Plan that includes a data inventory, governance framework, standardized operating procedures, data dictionary, data-sharing agreement templates, performance dashboard specifications, sustainability plan, and implementation roadmap. These deliverables will position the network to pursue future implementation funding, improve coordination among healthcare and community partners, strengthen regional planning capacity, and support evidence-based decisions that improve healthcare access, resource allocation, and health outcomes for rural residents throughout Genesee, Orleans, and Wyoming Counties.
