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On Tuesday, July 30, AHIP, Civitas Networks for Health (Civitas), and Health Level Seven® International (HL7®) presented proposed demographic data standards revisions to improve data collection and advance health equity.
Launched in late 2023, the Demographic Data Element Modernization Effort (DEMo) Initiative builds off three years of prior work by AHIP. This initiative aims to modernize and enhance demographic data content and exchange standards to better identify disparities, inform more culturally responsive care, and understand social drivers of health to advance health equity.
The DEMo Initiative engaged more than 130 stakeholders and federal partners across the nation’s health care and community-based care ecosystem all working to revise demographic data questions and response choices to be more culturally sensitive, sufficiently granular, and aligned across stakeholders. Participant insights and experiences were used to refine the original AHIP-proposed demographic data elements for race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, language preference, disability status, pronouns, relationship status, military experience, and spiritual beliefs. Join us to learn more about the results of this critical work and the DEMo Initiative’s next steps to develop corresponding interoperable exchange standards and implementation guidance.