Our HHS experience began in the private sector, working with healthcare organizations on technology, data integration, and community-facing digital solutions. That work included collaborating with organizational leaders and communications teams to ensure technology, messaging, and design supported their mission and the communities they served.

That experience expanded significantly through more than six years of leadership at the New Mexico Department of Health. Working alongside program leaders, epidemiologists, technology teams, and other stakeholders provided a firsthand understanding of the relationship between an agency's mission, the programs that carry it out, and the technology and data needed to support them.

The work spanned major public-health systems and initiatives, including disease surveillance, epidemiology, enterprise identity management, data integration and interoperability, cloud-based data platforms, and application modernization. It included working with healthcare interoperability standards such as HL7 and FHIR, collaborating with the CDC and other partners on public-health data and systems, and operating within HIPAA privacy and security requirements. The work moved an Enterprise Master Person Index (EMPI) into production, modernized disease surveillance systems, and developed new approaches to integrating information across programs to create a more complete, 360-degree view of the people, populations, and communities being served.

Just as important was the work around the technology. Complex HHS initiatives require program and technology leaders to understand one another, establish effective governance, translate operational needs into actionable requirements, navigate procurement and contracting, coordinate across organizational boundaries, and manage implementation and change.

During the COVID-19 response, those capabilities became particularly important. Rapidly changing needs required close coordination among program, technology, data, and operational teams while decisions and solutions had to move at a pace very different from traditional government initiatives.

Across these experiences, one lesson remained consistent: technology and data are not the mission. They are tools that help people accomplish the mission. Effective HHS modernization begins with understanding the programs, the people doing the work, the communities being served, and the outcomes the organization is trying to achieve.

Over those years, Kent built a broad network of seasoned HHS professionals, including epidemiologists, physicians, program-delivery specialists, HHS technologists, and experienced leaders. ReasonedPath draws on that network and a perspective built through years in the trenches to help HHS leaders connect mission, programs, technology, data, procurement, governance, and execution. We bring together the experience and expertise needed to make well-reasoned decisions and move complex initiatives forward.

Have an HHS challenge or initiative you'd like to discuss? Contact us to start a conversation.