Data-Driven Healthcare: How Analytics and BI are Transforming the Industry

CHAPTER 1 What Does Data Mean to You?

DATA:

noun plural but singular or plural in construction, often attributive

1. Factual information (as measurements or statistics) used as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation. <the data is plentiful and easily available—H. A. Gleason, Jr.><comprehensive data on economic growth have been published—N. H. Jacoby>
2. Information output by a sensing device or organ that includes both useful and irrelevant or redundant information and must be processed to be meaningful.
3. Information in numerical form that can be digitally transmitted or processed.

(Merriam-Webster, 2014)

The frenetic pace of change in healthcare has been hard to deal with. The broad adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) has ushered in a wave of data that most organizations are not sure what to do with, beyond the standard regulatory reporting. The HITECH Act of 2009 ensured that data, for all the good and bad, is here to stay. Everyone wants it, but very few organizations really know how to get it or what to do with it once it's there.

When I work with organizations that are just getting started, they often express similar concerns:

• “Where do I start?”
• “Do I have the right staff?”
• “Do I have the right technology?”
• “What are other healthcare organizations doing?” ...