Unlocking Productivity Through Connected Health Data

New Zealand is investing billions in connecting healthcare systems and data to enable interoperability - a way for separate healthcare systems to "talk to each other" and share information seamlessly. While we know that better health leads to better economic outcomes, there's a critical gap between healthcare data investment and measurable productivity gains.

Healthcare data interoperability promises significant productivity benefits, such as:
- For individuals: Faster diagnoses, reduced medical appointments, better preventive care leading to fewer sick days
- For businesses: Healthier workforces, lower insurance costs, reduced absenteeism
- For governments: More efficient healthcare delivery, better population health outcomes, reduced healthcare costs

Yet these benefits are difficult to quantify, track, and unlock in practice. Decision-makers can struggle to:
- Measure the true productivity impact of health data investments
- Identify which interoperability initiatives deliver the best economic returns
- Connect health system improvements to workforce and economic outcomes
- Build compelling business cases for continued investment

This challenge requires you to develop a financial model or benefits case and linked strategy that clearly outlines the derived productivity growth and benefits of better healthcare interoperability.
Key questions and aspects to consider:
- What aspect of healthcare interoperability are you seeking to focus on? What systems are being connected, and which organisations or individuals are involved in this transformation?
- What are the most important mechanisms through which better health leads to better performance, reduced absenteeism, and economic growth?
- What policies, technologies, partnerships, and/or educational efforts could be leveraged to ensure that interoperability leads to real-world improvements?
- What metrics and evaluation frameworks should be used to quantify gains in productivity, such as reduced sick days, increased workforce participation, or economic output?

Your solution needs to be a set of actionable recommendations and measurable benefits tailored to different stakeholder groups, with a high level view of the investment required for implementation. As part of your proposal, you are expected to define core mechanisms and measures to evaluate progress.

You are free to choose any format for your solution.