Transforming healthcare through secondary use of health data

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"Transforming healthcare through secondary use of health data", the latest report, published by PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Industries, addresses the opportunities as well as the major challenges and barriers to secondary use of data. Secondary use of data is defined as clinical, financial, administrative, and self-reported data which is aggregated, analyzed and presented in a concise, actionable format for the purpose of identifying trends, predicting outcomes and influencing patient care, drug development and therapy choices.

PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the secondary use of health data is still in its infancy but is expected to grow exponentially as health IT implementation is fuelled by federal stimulus finds. The report shares findings from a national PwC poll which involved more than 700 industry executives as well as consolidates conversations that took place during a one-day roundtable with 17 leading IT and strategy executives from the industry. The survey found that most health industry executives believe that the secondary use of information will be their organization’s greatest asset over the next five years. De-identified data mined from the health system could be re-used to improve patient care, predict public health trends and reduce healthcare costs. However, a lack of standards, privacy concerns and technology limitations are holding back progress.

The newly published report offers specific recommendations for public-private collaboration and a federal government role in creating incentives for the private sector to collect, share and use health data; to establish standards; and to redefine technical architecture to ensure interoperability.