California is poised to make great progress, and has an opportunity to leverage the tremendous potential of information technology to improve health and wellness outcomes for vulnerable populations, particularly children and youth living in foster care. Recent technology and policy developments have created an environment in which it is possible to transform the delivery of care by linking systems, programs, and providers, allowing decision-makers efficient access to the information necessary to provide comprehensive care to the whole child. Building on two previous reports, this issue brief summarizes the potential for electronic information exchange to enhance care coordination and improve outcomes, highlights current efforts at the state and local level to achieve these results, and raises a few policy issues that, if resolved, would facilitate movement toward the goal of appropriate information exchange between programs and providers to serve vulnerable youth.
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