The Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) has devoted an entire issue to health IT (HIT) data standards. Skimming the intro, I get a quick sense of a familiar evolution story in the data management field – along with a robust, informed response to today's state of play.
The authors suggest that HIT data standards arguably “date to the canonical list for causes of death in the London Bills of Mortality of 1528”. Since then there has been proliferation of standards, leading to the inevitable silos and problems with interoperability. But today's healthcare professionals are acutely aware of the joined-up nature of medical practice. For them, being “patient-centric” isn't a buzzword. The need to tie together all the available information about a patient is critical to individual care. And the need to pool data about patient populations is crucial for understanding the mechanisms of disease and the effectiveness of interventions. Of course, joined-up data is also key to efficient and effective funding of the healthcare system.
The authors also say: “While far from comprehensive or fully coherent, the current state of HIT standards is at a turning point, where we appear to be making more effective progress and practical applications than most would have predicted from the bad old days of just a few decades ago.” Yes, there are plenty of acronyms to wade through, and many different perspectives must be reconciled. However, this mature attitude to making a concerted effort toward comprehensive, consistent data standards provides an example many other fields of activity can learn from – not least in business. Oxford
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