Elliot M. Stone Award of Excellence in Health Data Leadership

Since 1990, NAHDO has presented the NAHDO Award of Excellence in Health Data Leadership to one or more individuals who represent the highest ideals in data collection, analysis, or outcomes measurement and whose creative efforts have made outstanding contributions to improvements in the collection, application, and/or dissemination of health data. Until his passing in 2005, Elliot Stone helped NAHDO select awardees who made significant contributions to the health information field and who exhibited characteristics of quality, excellence, and passion in their work---characteristics that Elliot himself embodied.

In 2005, following Elliot Stone’s untimely passing, the NAHDO Board renamed its annual award, the “Elliot Stone Award of Excellence in Health Data Leadership”, in honor of Elliot and in acknowledgement of his generosity, care, and diligence to the field and to his colleagues. Elliot set the highest standards for his own performance and for others to follow. At NAHDO’s 20th Anniversary Meeting in Washington, D.C., the first Elliot Stone Award of Excellence was presented posthumously by NAHDO to Elliot’s wife and sons.

2024 Recipient - Jo Porter 

Jo Porter is the co-chair of the APCD Council and former executive director of the Institute for Health Policy and Practice (IHPP) at the University of New Hampshire. At IHPP, Jo was instrumental in developing a claims data reporting tool that has supported analysis for clients like the NH Purchasers Group, NH Accountable Care organizations, NH Department of Health and Human Services, NH Insurance Department and many researchers at UNH. During her time at UNH, Jo became involved in APCDs through the “Regional All-Payer Health Information Council” in 2008 and successfully joined forces with NAHDO in 2009 to form what we know today as the APCD Council.

During Jo’s time with the APCD Council, she has worked directly with over 20 states promulgating the value of APCDs to agencies, legislators and other APCD-curious audiences. Jo has developed manuals, white papers, formal testimony, comments on rule-making, SCOTUS amicus briefs and the APCD use showcase to articulate the uses of APCDs. She has worked tirelessly with agencies like CMS, SAMHSA, the Department of Labor and countless US congressmen and senators' offices to keep the path clear for states to develop APCDs. Perhaps most importantly, Jo has helped establish this group of professionals into the family that we are today.