健康数据挖掘 任重而道远

medtech

Effective data mining remains distant goal

By Jeff Rowe, Editor

One of the many benefits expected from the implementation of new HIT is the potential for healthcare providers to “mine” health data in order to improve the overall level of healthcare services.
But a new survey of health providers and payers points to several hurdles that will need to be overcome in order for providers to achieve that level of use.
Released by HIMSS Analytics , the survey used focus group and telephone interviews in an attempt “to evaluate the effective use of clinical analytics” across the healthcare sector.
As one might expect, most of the respondents indicated that “they are collecting and/or leveraging clinical and/or claims data to enhance patient care cost, safety and efficiency.”
The report goes on to point out that “data is looked at on a variety of levels. Respondents are not only looking at information on a specific patient, but also exploring data across population-based metrics, such as data specific to a particular physician or to a certain condition, such as diabetes or hypertension.”
Collecting the data, however, seems to be the easy part. How to use it effectively is where the numerous obstacles arise. For example, “respondents have issues with being able to find and manipulate data that exists only in a paper format, as this requires extensive data entry and manipulation to yield a satisfactory format in which the data
can be analyzed.”
Moreover, the report points out that “just because data is housed electronically doesn’t mean that it is ready for analysis.” One of the problems, respondents said, is that there are a range of data storage and access formats, some of which are interoperable and some of which aren’t. And, as usual, respondents pointed to having limited resources to deal with the issues they encounter.
For policymakers in particular, the report is worth reading in full, as it points out the challenges with which providers still need help. The respondents to this survey generally agree that health data can be valuable, but there’s a ways to go before that value is finally realized.