UHIN Status

Monitoring: Title: Multi-State EHR-Based Network for Disease Surveillance

Posted Date: 2/6/2026 Deadline for Opt Outs: 3/8/2026

Authority: In accordance with the UHIN Requirements: Member Policies and Procedural Manual v1, CHIE Permitted Purpose Policy (https://support.uhin.org/s/article/Member-Policies-And-Procedures-Manual) and applicable law (including the federal Information Blocking Rule), UHIN may use and disclose Patient Data for any Limited Public Health Activity (PHA) or a Research purpose pursuant to a Public Health Emergency or with Source Member consent for the specific PHA or Research project; provided, however, that additional Source Member consent shall not be required for any voluntary or mandatory public health reporting. UHIN shall obtain Source Member consent for a specific PHA or Research project by providing notice on its website (https://status.uhin.org/, Data Source Opt Out Notifications) and giving such Source Members up to thirty (30) calendar days after the notice is posted to the website to opt out of the specific PHA or Research project. Members are encouraged to sign up for UHIN’s RSS feed to receive automated notifications of updates to this website. If a Source Member does not exercise its opt out rights within this 30-day period, the Source Member is deemed to have consented to the specific PHA or Research project.

Type of Request: This is a Public Health Activity request for chronic disease surveillance

Project/Study Title: Multi-State EHR-Based Network for Disease Surveillance Protocol Number (if applicable): 2

Requestor: Utah Department of Health and Human Services and the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors

Description of Project/Study: MENDS is a distributed network for surveillance that leverages electronic health record (EHR) data to generate timely prevalence estimates of chronic disease risk measures at national and local levels. MENDS can be accessed by health departments and other authorized users for monitoring trends, informing policies, planning programs, and evaluating outcomes to improve the health of the population. Information on the MENDS project, including Project Summary and Overview, how MENDS works, and governance, can be located here https://chronicdisease.org/cphl/technical-assistance-hub/data-modernization/mends/

Type of Patient Data Involved: A limited data set will be extracted from the CHIE and be available through secure systems, with proper access control, to the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD), the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, and NORC at the University of Chicago. Business Associate Agreements and/or Data Use Agreements will be implemented as required by applicable law.

UHIN Board review and approval: 8/14/2025

Authorization or IRB/Privacy Board Waiver (for Research Studies Only): Not applicable, this is a public health activity, not research. IRB/Privacy Board Approval or Exemption (for Research Studies Only): Not applicable, this is a public health activity, not research.

If you have questions or wish to have additional information about this project, please email [email protected] and include the title of the project and your request. If your organization or agency wishes to opt out of allowing their data to be included in this project, please have your contract contact email [email protected] by 3/8/2026 to opt out.