Undoubtedly, the healthcare data is increasing at an unprecedented rate, but this change is diverse and complex. Healthcare providers, irrespective of their vast struggles and investments, are still not able to identify the true nature of their data. The first step in harnessing the true power of data requires us to think and firstly identify what we’re looking at- not the solutions but the questions first.

Healthcare is one of the largest sectors in the U.S. and has evolved in many ways, with healthcare data rising to become its deep-rooted member. With the quickly evolving technologies, this data will not be constrained by the boundaries of merely clinical and claims data. Even today, despite the evolved technical proficiency, the healthcare organizations are struggling against data irregularities, missing data, legacy systems, and whatnot. Imagine the chaos when these data boundaries will be broken in the future!

With an increased focus on Triple Aim, a healthcare overhaul is in process. An aggressive expansion of data is taking place, but the focus still lies majorly on integrating inpatient data. While inpatient data has served as the primary source for patient information, ambulatory visits make up for 41 out of 100 visits to the care facilities. Integrating the two facets is thus essential to get a better understanding of measures such as wellness and prevention, diagnosis, treatments among others.

In the rapidly changing healthcare space that we are in, the push for information transparency has taken the center stage along with the need to gain action-ready insights in a jiffy. More and more healthcare organizations are looking for data-driven ways to enhance patient-centric care and contain their expenditures. We are generating a lot more data in healthcare than ever before, but where does it go? What kind of system do we have to store the data that we bring together? Is the data safe? These questions make providers think twice before they invest their resources and time in any data center.

Imagine 1,000 people dying every single day.

In January 2015, the Department of Health and Human Services set a goal to tie 50% of the Medicare payments to value or quality by 2018. This transition has put physicians on the frontlines of healthcare, as they play a major role in the value-based roadmap of an organization.

Now, in a space as vital as healthcare, the predictive ability could be gold- be it diseases, the cost of care, or even the technology trends that the future would bring us. Considering the present-day scenario, the ability to predict the future cost of care, out of everything, could change the way we view healthcare. Especially as healthcare moves to put quality in care on the forefront, predicting the cost of care for every single patient could be a huge plus.

Consider a 57-year old diabetic man who missed his past two HbA1c tests. Given that diabetes runs in his family, and that his blood glucose is more than 8.1%, he is quite likely to have a stroke, or worse, a cardiac arrest. Perhaps if someday, that man googles ‘symptoms of stroke’ at 11:30 pm on his phone as the fitness band on his wrist records his escalating heart rate, there’s a good chance that he will end up in the emergency department the next morning.

An ideal state for two-way interoperability would be wherein all systems in the U.S. have adopted the industry standards. However, the current scenario is a far cry from what it should be. Digitalization in healthcare has been fairly new and while the industry has been slow to fully adopt health IT, two-way interoperability has suffered because of it.

Over 95% of hospitals have a certified EHR technology in place today, yet EHR integration still remains a sticking point, resulting in reduced efficiencies, higher costs, and negative outcomes. As of 2015, only 65% of hospitals could make use of electronic clinical information, but only about 4 out of 10 hospitals could integrate data into their EHRs.