Why we’re creating a first-of-its-kind community information exchange for Cook County, Illinois

Wellconnected was thrilled in December to be part of the team chosen to create a community information exchange for Cook County, Illinois.

The winning bid, which included partners 4Medica and New Jersey Innovation Institute, will lead to  a first-of-its-kind system which integrates healthcare and social records.

For instance, a doctor will be able to access not just electronic health records but also learn their parents’ social care history, giving them more context to make better diagnoses.

4Medica is a leading builder of health information exchange and health information networks. wellconnected and its allco platform create digital social care networks, breaking down siloed systems and boosting regional collaboration.

Under the five-contract, the combined systems will be the first in the U.S. to integrate those capabilities.

“This is the first time that both social and healthcare providers will have insight and context not only into someone’s health information and diagnoses, but also their lived experiences and environments,” wellconnected CEO Duane Conners said.  “It is a necessary step in improving the delivery of healthcare and social care at a community level. If a doctor can see their patient has used a food bank, been in transitional housing or needed utility assistance, then they can start asking those environmental questions. It gives them better insight and leads to more effective interventions.”

The Chicago-region project caps years of work building out a robust and secure platform, our ‘allco’ suite, that integrates various tools toward a networked enterprise system. Those tools include case management, records of care, regional referral networks, customizable forms and more.

But it’s also a broader recognition of wellconnected’s place in a maturing market. For years, we’ve been preaching about a tech-enabled vision of America’s social safety net, where new operating standards draw funders and nonprofits closer together. With business standards, better data and more transparency, we argue that the system will become much better at understanding and ultimately serving those in need.

But on the ground, social care doesn’t move as one. It’s a thousand disconnected networks across the U.S., loosely tied by funding entities that include governments, foundations and insurance companies. It’s taken time for our message to take hold, and to develop a precise understanding of how to implement our vision.

We’ll remember these past 12 months at wellconnected as the time when our vision started to become a reality. 

The breadth of our business has now spread well outside of our home base in Buffalo, NY, to largescale integrations in New Jersey, West Virginia and now Illinois. County governments require their networks to use ‘allco.’ Insurance companies use ‘allco’ to reach and refer their Medicare members. Statewide 211 systems use ‘allco’ to record calls and send people to the right resources.

We successfully completed an amazing program, the LIFT: Accelerating Equitable Health Innovation accelerator by Village Capital, where we honed our positioning as a software company that is creating an expansive and untapped business opportunity.

Our annual recurring revenue more than doubled, creating the “hockey stick” growth trajectory while also nailing down longterm deals that are poised to grow over time.

That’s the recent past. wellconnected will use this body of evidence in the next few years to continue many of the high-level conversations it’s currently having. We are graduating from the era of validating our product-market fit and calibrating our go-to-market strategy, and into a new phase of expansive growth. We plan to introduce this new paradigm of social care to every community in America. The plane is lifting off.