The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Connecting for Health Collaborative - United States

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In June, 2002, the Markle Foundation launched a nine-month effort called Connecting for Health: A Public-Private Collaborative. This programme involves convening government representatives, healthcare and industry leaders, and consumer advocates to promote adoption of standards for electronic medical information that foster improvements in patient care while protecting privacy. The purpose of these standards is to improve clinical decision-making, reduce medical errors, facilitate timely research on patient outcomes, and increase the effectiveness of public health efforts. Ultimately, the programme hopes to enable patients to gain access to secure medical information in order to become informed partners in their own care.
Communication Strategies
The collaborative will include practicing clinicians; hospitals; employers and other third-party payers; federal and state government organisations; healthcare information technology organizations; academic and research institutions; national standards groups; accrediting organisations; manufacturers; community organisations; and consumers. The collaborative is organised into three working groups focusing on data standardisation, privacy and security, and personal health.
Development Issues
Rights, Health, Technology.
Key Points
Programme organisers contend that, despite the sophistication of the U.S. healthcare system, medical information is often collected and reported in a piecemeal fashion. As a result, hospitals and physicians are often unable to obtain usable information that will help in applying research breakthroughs or avoiding preventable medical mistakes. Physicians may find themselves providing patient care without always knowing what has been done previously for a patient and by whom.

This initiative is part of a broader effort to build a National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII), an idea first introduced in an Institute of Medicine report on computer-based patient records in 1991. The purpose of the NHII is to deliver reliable data in a secure format to consumers and medical professionals when and where they need it.
Sources

Letter sent from Peter Kerr to the Global Knowledge Development Discussion (GKD) list server on June 26, 2002.