Health IT, Hospitals

The problem with big data in health? Too much focus on technology instead of people/process

One of the great things about going to industry conferences is hearing people who are […]

One of the great things about going to industry conferences is hearing people who are skilled presenters — meaning they can explain things that everyone probably notices, but do so in a way that makes problems and potential solutions seem so much clearer.

Dr. Kevin Fickenscher did that for me Monday in a talk about “big, sexy data and healthcare.” And all that the president and CEO of the American Medical Informatics Association (also former chief medical officer at WebMD) had to do was present the classic people, process, technology Venn diagram for change.

“One of the things that has been a problem in healthcare is that we tend to spend too much time talking about the technology and not enough time talking about the people and the process,” he explained. “So my personal bias is that while technology is important […] if we don’t deal with the people and process, we will not solve these other issues; we won’t have good change management, and we won’t have good implementation, which is where the value gets created from large data.”

For example, he said, the last few years have been dominated by a focus on Meaningful Use and the deployment of electronic medical records. Getting the technological infrastructure in order for this to happen is one thing, but Fickenscher urged that just as much attention, if not more attention, should be given to supporting the culture shift that comes with the new technology.

For starters, that means investing in people with a keen ability to create knowledge out of data (in case you didn’t hear, the data scientist is apparently the sexiest job of the 21st century). From a wider view, maybe what this industry needs for now is actually less trying to add layer upon layer on top of new technologies and more innovation in the way of training and engaging providers, and making that technology easy for them to use.

But physicians have to do their bit, too. Fickenscher’s advice for his fellow physicians? “Paddle like hell, because the system is changing rapidly, and I do believe that we are working toward the open health model of delivery, which means that not only are we as experts in the field going to be analyzing the data, but the data is going to be analyzed by others as well.”

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