Data Logistics: A Generation-defining Leap Forward in Healthcare

This is an amazing fact since the digitization of health care records did not occur until 2005-2006 when electronic health records became prevalent

Today, approximately 30% of the world’s data volume is being generated by the healthcare industry. According to the World Economic Forum, less than 3% of that data gets used.¹ By 2025, healthcare will produce more data than any other market segment and is the least poised to put that data to work.

Examples of the many decisions in healthcare that need more complete data:

 A pharmaceutical sponsor decides on a trial recruitment strategy to ensure a diverse and representative population in a pivotal clinical trial.

A regulator determines whether an intervention that came to market under an accelerated approval pathway continues to provide meaningful benefit in a larger patient population.

A physician making quick decisions in an emergency care setting.

Public health authorities need real-time data to act quickly and decisively to avoid or contain disease outbreaks, using data to track disease patterns and detect emerging threats.

and so many more

It isn’t a far-fetched, utopian dream. The data exists. The computational power exists. Analytical capabilities increase every day. We have a compelling need, in human health. So what is stopping us?

Let’s Start by Reframing Healthcare’s Key Challenge: 

A Broken Data Supply Chain

A functioning data supply chain is one where health data movement can overcome systemic isolation while complying with critical privacy regulations. In healthcare, it would mean data moves and connects securely, compliantly, and frictionlessly.

We benefit from high-functioning supply chains every day. Building a car takes 30,000 parts across 4,000 suppliers, from 20 different countries with hundreds of different regulations. That’s fragmentation on steroids. But it comes together like a symphony, and we trust the output of that supply chain with our own safety and the safety of our loved ones.

Assembling a patient’s full, longitudinal health story is similar. It is made up of all the different doctor’s visits, all the medications, treatment history, family history, and social determinants. Doing so should be as efficient as an automaker assembling a car or the way an internet search engine or an online retailer makes information and goods available and useful at the click of a button.

What are the barriers?    

5 Reasons Healthcare Data Is Unique and Difficult to Measure

Data logistics is the connective tissue required for a supply chain to operate effectively. The challenges that data logistics help overcome are two-fold:

1. Organizations are reluctant to share health data. Health data is the world’s most personal and precious data — regulated, sensitive, and rightfully, nearly impossible to move. Healthcare is made up of an ecosystem of organizations that need to exchange data, but organizations are reluctant to do so given the strict compliance regulations.

2. Data is not designed to be shared and connected. It is in many formats, much of it paper, and collected across fragmented systems that don’t speak to each other. That requires significant technology and healthcare coding effort to ensure information can be “connected” in a way to create an actual patient journey across settings.

Solutions.  This is the role of interoperability, facilitated by Health Information Exchanges (HIE). It required a common language.  (HL7) to bridge the gap between disparate databases, the EHR, Pharmacy systems, Laboratory systems, Hospitals, Imaging sources, and a litany of other providers.

It also requires privacy and confidentiality necessitated security.  National standards listed in HIPAA regulations strictly regulate business agreements by all participants.

To assemble the full patient story, logistics capabilities are required across a variety of factors:

Authorized consent (e.g. de-identified and identified) 

source (e.g. hospital EHR, imaging, genomic data, doctor visits, wearables)

Format (e.g. structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data)

Use case (e.g. clinical decisions, research purposes, health plan optimizations)

Logistics is the critical missing piece to bring the data revolution to healthcare

Leading companies must bring data logistics to healthcare, so organizations can securely and compliantly move health data from where it sits to where it needs to be

Interoperability and Health Information Exchanges bring together all the necessary modalities to ensure that health data moves from where it sits to where it needs to be.  

For decades, we’ve put in the time to partner with and truly understand the different players across the industry, discover the best ways of connecting and sharing necessary data, and build trust that the infrastructure for the compliant exchange of health data is not only now possible but essential.

Data logistics will change the face of the healthcare industry. Providers can better serve their patients. Health plans can fund high-quality care of more patients. Life Sciences companies can develop more breakthrough treatments and preventative health approaches. The public sector can serve the needs of diverse populations proactively and equitably. Private sector companies can make informed and timely decisions. And most importantly, patients — all of us — will live longer, better, healthier lives.