Healthcare organizations are at a critical inflection point: the industry is generating about one-third of the world's data, but health systems need new ways to make that information actionable to support value-based and patient-centered care.
During a June Becker's Hospital Review webinar sponsored by MediQuant, Stephanie Kovalick, chief strategy officer at Sage Growth Partners, moderated a discussion with Jim Jacobs, president and CEO of MediQuant, about how providers can harness technology to make data more accessible, archive obsolete data systems in a useful way and prepare for emerging business, operational and clinical use cases that leverage data in new ways.
Three key takeaways were:
- Health systems are relying on siloed legacy information infrastructures that lack advanced data management capabilities. To transform raw data into a strategic asset, organizations need enterprise-level tools and services.
"There's a big push for discrete non-PDF data that is available in an actionable format and for linking patient records by pulling more information rather than just data for data's sake," Mr. Jacobs said. "One of the sea changes that's happening is that hospitals are saying, 'We need an enterprise approach.'"
Yet, a survey by MediQuant and Sage found that 52% of respondents' organizations operate (and pay to run and maintain) between 6 and 30 disparate systems, while 17% operate more than 50. In addition, 50% are using two or more EHRs.
- There is a sense of urgency among CIOs about an enterprise approach to data archiving, too. This encompasses archiving outdated data systems in a way that preserves access to the data contained in them, which can be valuable for myriad secondary use cases, including research or software development.
Having sound archiving strategies is also important from a regulatory compliance perspective (e.g., HIPAA, hospital payroll systems, security logs, audits), as well as from the perspective of increased M&A activity. Ms. Kovalick said survey respondents cited scalability as the number one concern for CIOs regarding their institutions' existing archival strategies and systems.
"Scalability becomes extremely important because we're seeing a huge uptick in the volume of data that's being considered," Mr. Jacobs noted.
- An enterprise single-vendor strategy for data archiving trumps a multi-vendor strategy. The enterprise approach to data management and data archiving that health systems are realizing they need suggests they need to change how they partner with third-party technology vendors.
Traditionally, different departments, hospitals and physician practices in a health system have contracted third-party providers based on specific internal needs, without regard for how the solution may interface with other parts of the organization.
"The need at the enterprise level for consolidated data, for one place to go to get information, is creating pressure for more [technology] standardization and for finding enterprise vendors that will engage and can deliver reliable results," Mr. Jacobs said.
MediQuant’s flagship product, DataArk, provides a single source of information across clinical, financial and administrative systems. The information is interoperable, compliant with regulatory requirements such as the FHIR standard, and structured appropriately for use cases that leverage AI and other emerging advanced technologies. MediQuant's solution also provides active archive support that enables seamless longitudinal data interactions.