Parkland Health Earns 2022 HIMSS Public Health Davies Award

Parkland Health, as an anchor for Dallas County in collaboration with Dallas County Health & Human Services and Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation, has been recognized as a 2022 HIMSS Public Health Davies Award recipient.

In partnership with community health partners, Parkland Health and the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation developed and supported impactful data-informed solutions to digitally transform critical public and community health services in Dallas County.

These solutions, including Community Health Needs Assessments and Proximity, Vulnerability and SocioNeeds indexes populating geo-mapping technologies, allow public health officials and providers “hyper-localized” insight into the health and wellness needs of underserved communities. These tools allow local public health efforts and Parkland Health to improve health equity, create better access to community-based services and improve public health reporting.

Parkland Health Case Study

• Digitally Transformed Community Health

“HIMSS is proud to recognize Parkland Health as the recipient of the Davies Award for public health,” said Tom Leary, senior vice president and head of government relations at HIMSS. “First and foremost, Parkland Health serves as a healthcare anchor for Dallas County as it works with Dallas County Health & Human Services and Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation.

“Just as impressive, Parkland Health’s infrastructure supports a digital capacity that addresses the wellness, public health and health-related insecurities of the 2.6 million residents of Dallas County,” Leary said. “It is a model for digitally transforming community health, and it provides a scalable blueprint for modernizing public and community health data for the entire healthcare ecosystem.”

The HIMSS Davies Award for Public Health showcases organizations leveraging information and technology to enhance core public health services — such as contact tracing, syndromic disease surveillance reporting, electronic case reporting, notifiable disease surveillance, vital records reporting, electronic reportable laboratory results reporting and immunization registry reporting and queries — and drive faster, more actionable intelligence to improve community health.

The HIMSS the Davies Award for Public Health specifically recognizes recipients that leverage the power of information and technology to enhance public health, promote health equity and provide actionable insights to improve the wellness of the community they serve.

“We are honored to be recognized as the first Davies public health recipient in a decade,” said Fred Cerise, MD, MPH, Parkland’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “While it is a privilege to receive this award, the true representation of this recognition is the way everyone at Parkland, PCCI and the health department partners care for the residents of Dallas County. This collaborative effort lies in the many innovative ways that Parkland’s use of data improves the health of our patient population and continues to advance our dedication to health and well-being of the individuals and communities entrusted to our care.”

The Davies Awards program promotes HIMSS’s vision and mission by recognizing and sharing use cases, model practices and lessons learned on how to improve health and wellness through the power of information and technology.