The National Quality Forum has released a whitepaper detailing ways to make health data and analytics more meaningful, usable and available to providers and consumers.
Here are 12 recommendations from the whitepaper, categorized by healthcare stakeholder.
Payers
1. Make data more available in a timely manner.
2. Contribute to data sources, such as all-payer databases.
States
3. Build an analytics platform for Medicaid.
4. Use governors' capabilities to access healthcare data across a state, and use it to improve data.
EHR vendors and health IT policymakers
5. Promote true interoperability between different clinical data systems.
6. Improve data availability by eliminating high, recurring data access fees.
7. Create and make widely available application program interfaces.
Healthcare organizations
8. Promote the culture and tools needed to effectively leverage data.
9. Develop professional improvement programs.
10. Ensure internal governance processes allow for integration of disparate data sources.
Patients and consumers
11. Provide feedback on healthcare experiences and outcomes.
12. Participate in improvement initiatives, such as patient advisory councils or community collaborations.