The basis for improving healthcare and outcomes in the Caribbean involves greater collaboration and sharing of information. This fundamental premise is often expressed during regional meetings and conferences. This is especially important when discussing the establishment of health financing models and sharing lessons learned for more credible and cost effective processes. For example, Bermuda is currently deciding on risk pooling options for its health insurance system. When talking to partners in other countries of the region, health authorities of Bermuda realize that other countries have already gone through many of the necessary steps. The investments that are made by each country in this type of activity are not optimized due to duplication of effort and the lack of building on previous work.
By establishing the Virtual Center of Caribbean Healthcare Innovation (vCCHI), the more than 20 regional states will have a platform for information sharing and hosted communication.
One of the winning proposals of the call for proposals for the implementation of IS4H projects promoted by the Pan American Health Organization aims to develop a Virtual Center for Caribbean Healthcare Innovation, a virtual central hub for information exchange that will address the lack of pointed collaboration across the region with regard to health financing reform. The project is led by the Bermuda Health Council.
By establishing the Virtual Center of Caribbean Healthcare Innovation (vCCHI), the more than 20 regional states will have a platform for directed information sharing, learning modules, and hosted communication. The virtual center would allow for low overhead and is a regional approach intended to support current country-specific activities.
Features of the vCCHI would include access for all member states, encrypted data repositories, meeting platform hosting (such a video conferencing), events networking, and features for eLearning. The collaborative hub would allow for flexible and evolving information exchange, initially developed to support system improvement and more effective financing structures.
