Data - THE Most Important Asset for the Medical Practice
Data - THE Most Important Asset for the Medical Practice
- May 23rd, 2010Dr. John Glaser, Chairman of the Healthcare CIO SmartBrief
For most providers data has been a secondary consideration. Data is often seen as less worthy of investment than areas such as equipment, buildings and IT support of clinical, operations and finance processes. Most IT discussions center on applications, with the focus of the application being improvements in important processes such as ordering tests or scheduling a patient.
Process improvements and investments in buildings and equipment will always be important. However, the management of data deserves the same level of importance. Increased accountability for care performance and interoperable electronic health records will lead to data graduating from the kid’s table to the adult’s table at Thanksgiving.
In some cases, the quality and timeliness of data may be the most significant and important source of an organization’s competitive advantage. Having good data about referring physicians may be more important than a fast registration process. Knowing whether you are meeting quality and efficiency targets for bundled payments may be more important than efficient ordering processes.
Data will become a critical strategic asset. Perhaps the most important asset.
http://www.bio-itworld.com/issues/2010/may-jun/halamka.html
