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Health data management benefits and challenges

In increasingly connected healthcare systems, data grows with exponential volume, value, and velocity. To make sense of this data and derive meaningful insights, hospitals, research centres, and pharmaceutical and biotech companies must adopt Health Data Management (HDM).

HDM is crucial for improving healthcare data quality and service delivery while reducing costs. The healthcare big data must make sense for analysts and business leaders while meeting the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

This article explains health data management, types of healthcare data and its benefits and challenges.


What is health data management?

HDM or Health Information Management (HIM) comprises patient’s health data from doctor visits in digital form. This includes Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and Electronic Health Records (EHRs), from test reports to printed reports and handwritten prescriptions. Research shows that most healthcare organisations collect data about claims, EMR, enrolment, and medical programs. A lesser number of organisations currently collect EMR feeds, disease management program data, patient lifestyle information, data from wearable devices, and surveys.


Types of healthcare data

  • Electronic health records – EHRs include patient’s health, clinical, and demographic information that was digitised under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
  • Electronic medical records – EMR is a subset of EHR and contains only the status of current treatment and medical care, not the entire history of the patient.
  • Public health data – This data gives a bird´s eye view of the overall health status in a region or a community.
  • Imaging data – This includes information from patient´s reports such as X-rays, ultrasounds, MRIs, CT scans, etc.
  • Administrative and demographic data – This comprises data from patient’s insurance claims, billing, reimbursement, and payment. Since it contains a patient’s credit card numbers and social security numbers, it is sensitive.
  • Data from wearables – From Fitbits to implants that monitor a heart’s performance, data from wearables tracks information about a user’s activity.
  • Research and clinical trials – Data from research and clinical trials is anonymous and should not be traceable to the participant.
  • Dashboards – Software systems within the healthcare system contain financial, patient, and services dashboards that produce data for better decision-making.

Benefits of health data management

Understand More About Health Data Management with Infosys BPM!

Understand More About Health Data Management with Infosys BPM!

Health data management leads to better decisions and improved patient care. Some of the benefits include –


Better alignment and communication

Digital healthcare data improves communication among patients and service providers and enables better collaboration among doctors across different geographical locations.


Improved patient engagement

Patients can access and view their records anytime and anywhere to understand the treatment and trends. It creates transparency between the patient and the healthcare institution.


Data-driven decision-making

The healthcare institution can make better decisions about the type of treatment for a given patient, medical professionals to recruit, the equipment to invest in, and ways to market their services.


Integration with a patient’s activities

Information from trackers that monitor a patient’s physical activity or those that monitor the performance of an organ can help doctors impart better treatments. This data can help raise proactive alerts if a patient is at risk of a medical condition.


Integration with new-age technologies

By layering analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, healthcare institutions can diagnose an illness without the patient visiting a doctor. Medical chatbots and knowledge management systems help in self-service, both for the patient and the staff.


Challenges of health data management

As the data transitions from paper-based to purely digital, it also faces several challenges that the technology partner must help you resolve. These include –


Data fragmentation

Data distributed in several spreadsheets, videos, databases, files, and digital documents may be fragmented due to different file formats and systems. Moreover, there could be duplicate copies with public health organisations, pharmacies, patients, and insurance agencies without a single source of truth.


Compliance with regulations

Medical information is sensitive because it contains a patient’s health records, insurance and credit card information, and prescriptions. Therefore, it must comply with the HIPAA regulations in the US for enhanced data security. Poor quality data can also be a roadblock for audits and limit the benefits for the patient.


Outdated data

Patient data such as location, profession, and medical condition continuously changes. They undergo several tests and treatments, which themselves evolve over the years. In the absence of a single source of truth, these changes may render patient data obsolete.


How can Infosys BPM help?

Infosys BPM healthcare services comprise a flexible operating model and integrated IT-BPM solutions to transform operating models, improve business performance, and standardise processes. Digital transformation in healthcare services includes benefits administration, member management, provider management, and claims administration.

Read more about health data management at Infosys BPM.


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