It's maybe my all-time favorite IT saying: Garbage In, Garbage Out. No matter how smart our technology, if we're less than smart about how we feed it data, we'll get bad – and even dangerous – results.
So it's almost spooky to see GIGO in the headline of a June 2015 Forbes article on data standards in healthcare. It's also encouraging to see the Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN) as the focus of a mainstream business article – everyone's waking up to the fact that data standards really are about the business. And the article goes straight to the heart of the slow progress in standards adoption in healthcare. The big stumbling block, as I've blogged about often is commoditization:
“Manufacturers fear commoditization. While they see the value in an improved data standard, they don’t like the idea that the adoption of a 14 character product code will make it easier for their customers to analyze cost, identify equivalent alternatives and measure value. In other words, there’s a belief that such transparency may not be good for business, despite the positive experiences of the few manufacturers that have already embraced it.”
Notice how the fear continues in the face of contradictory evidence. Commoditization is such a frightening prospect it's almost impossible to question whether it's a real threat, or just a bogeyman.
Writer Paul Martyn notes that healthcare providers are pressuring manufacturers to get with the standard (often just called GS1 for simplicity). They can't defend buying into proprietary systems. The additional costs and restrictions on trading are simply unacceptable. Martyn concludes: “An enriched data standard – GTIN – is essential to healthcare’s successful transformation. The idea that some manufacturers would continue to deliberately interfere is worse than short-sighted, it’s self-destructive.”
Hear, hear. To vendors in all industries: Data standards will save your business. Proprietary data standards belong in the past. Garbage in Garbage Out
Comments