Nebraska Healthcare Collaborative

Cultivating collaborative, informed, and innovative solutions for health.

About the Nebraska Healthcare Collaborative

The Nebraska Healthcare Collaborative is designed to bridge the gap between data sciences and healthcare in order to make systematic improvements across the state. The non-profit entity’s goal is to form teams of data scientists and healthcare professionals to share knowledge, working side-by-side to improve the health of all Nebraskans.

The Collaborative is the direct result of a long exploratory conversation between CyncHealth, providers, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and WellCare of Nebraska. Working together—along with academic affiliates, public health and community service organizations and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), we are looking at opportunities to create a market resource for data-driven decision making.

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Meet Our Team

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Our Vision

To transform the health of our population.

Our Mission

To facilitate cross-sector collaborations of diverse stakeholders optimizing health care delivery through teams that study and propose solutions to improve population health.

Our Values

Collaboration is our core – Addressing complex problems and societal issues requires collaboration across sectors and industries. No one can do it alone, and we engage our collaborators to tackle challenges and develop solutions related to population health.

Diverse perspectives solve complex problems – Complex problems have many potential solutions and we value diverse expertise to generate questions and solutions that drive us towards clarity and enhancements.

Data drives decisions – Data exists in many forms and from many sources in today’s healthcare landscape. Addressing current challenges requires turning disparate data into actionable information. We design and implement projects using data from comprehensive and reliable data sources that inform our decisions in population health.

Learning and teaching focused – The current and future workforce needs assistance managing the multiple complexities of health data to improve the cost, quality and experience of patients and providers. We support collaborations that promote learning and teaching across sectors both for teams and individuals to transform health care education and delivery.

How to Submit a Project to the Healthcare Collaborative

The intent of the manual and video below is to provide guidance for individuals submitting a project proposal to the Nebraska Healthcare Collaborative (NHC). Proposals must align with organizational values and include the rigor associated with excellence expected for dissemination either through presentations or publications. Additionally, project requests must align with the data available within CyncHealth and congruent with the goals of our partners. Proposals will be peer reviewed and must adhere to data governance protocols along with federal, state, and institutional guidelines. Not all proposals submitted will be accepted due to proposal volume, quality of proposal, value alignment of proposal, and other potential rationales.

If you have any questions about this process, please contact us at collaborative@cynchealth.org.

Download the Project Proposal Manual

Submit Project Request

Video Presentation to assist with Project Submission

The presentation below covers the basic concepts of interoperability and the opportunities to work with CyncHealth’s population health utilities, to do projects that can improve population health.

Meet Our Team

Ann Polich, MD

Chief Medical Officer & Executive Director, Nebraska Healthcare Collaborative and CyncHealth Foundation

Dr. Ann Polich previously directed quality and safety and led Lean transformation at Nebraska Methodist Health System. She also founded a rural preventive medicine clinic and was Associate Chief of Staff for the Omaha VA Medical Center. Ann is board-certified in Internal Medicine with a medical degree and MPH from the University of Kansas, and an MBA from Nebraska Methodist College.

Contact
apolich@cynchealth.org
531-772-0435

Joy Doll, OTD, OTR/L, FNAP

Chief Academic Programs

Prior to CyncHealth she was the inaugural Executive Director for Creighton University’s Center for Interprofessional Practice, Education and Research. In this role, Joy was responsible for helping lead initiatives to promote interprofessional education (IPE) and collaborative practice for Creighton University and CHI Health. As a champion for IPE and collaborative practice, Joy has helped facilitate teams of both academicians and clinicians to develop comprehensive IPE to meet the disciplinary accreditation requirements for 8 health professions programs and works with CHI Health to establish collaborative practice. In addition, she has published a book on grant writing and multiple scholarly publications along with giving a TEDx Talk. She maintains an Associate Clinical Faculty Appointment at Creighton University where she teaches grant writing and population health.

Contact
jdoll@cynchealth.org
531-999-1376

Join Our Team

Nebraska Healthcare Collaborative Board of Directors

Michael White, MD, Chair
Chief Medical Officer, Valleywise Health

Jeanette Wojtalewicz, Secretary
Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, CHI Health

Stephanie Daubert, Treasurer
Chief Financial Officer, Nebraska Medicine

Tim Meyers
President, WellCare of Nebraska

Susan Fritz, PhD
Executive Vice President & Provost, University of Nebraska

Mardell Wilson, EdD
Provost, Creighton University

Jaime Bland, DNP, RN
President & Chief Executive Officer, CyncHealth

Angeline Larson, MBA
Chief Operating Officer, Charles Drew Health Center

Lindsey Rai Kortan
Chief Executive Officer, Ronald McDonald House Charities in Omaha

Scott Ptacnik
President, CHI Health Partners

Carla Dirkschneider
Director of Healthcare Business and Health Information Management, Clarkson College

To learn more about the Nebraska Healthcare Collaborative please use the form to get in touch.