The American Medical Association founded a collaborative effort between the healthcare and technology sectors to develop a common data model, the group announced Oct. 16.
The Integrated Health Model Initiative platform will help healthcare organizations collect, organize and exchange patient data in a common structure. The goal of the effort is to develop patient care models that capture actionable insights into a variety of health conditions, with an initial focus on hypertension, diabetes and asthma outcomes.
"We spend more than $3 trillion a year on healthcare in America and generate more health data than ever before," said AMA CEO James L. Madara, MD. "Yet some of the most meaningful data — data to unlock potential improvements in patient outcomes — is fragmented, inaccessible or incomplete."
Early collaborators in the project include Cerner, IBM and the American Medical Informatics Association. AMA will continue to add healthcare and technology stakeholders to the project.