While Big Data Promises Big Changes in Health Care, Hurdles Remain

NEHI report details dilemma for health care innovators as volume of data raises more questions than it answers

“Big Data” generated from electronic medical records holds promise to transform healthcare and benefit patients, but a host of challenges threatens to derail the effort to lower costs, improve quality, and improve health care, according to a report published today by The Network for Excellence in Health Innovation (NEHI).

“Excitement over Big Data and real world evidence must be tempered,” said Thomas E. Hubbard, vice president of policy research at NEHI (Network for Excellence in Health Innovation) and principal author of the report, in a prepared statement. “Big Data has not eliminated longstanding challenges in standards and methods, nor has it addressed the dilemma of how our health care system can allow for real world demonstration of the value of innovations while controlling costs.”

In An Evolving Landscape: Comparative Effectiveness Research, Outcomes Research and Health Care Innovation, NEHI reported that comparative effectiveness research (CER) and patient-centered outcome research (PCOR)—cornerstones of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) designed to increase quality and reduce costs—hold promise for more effective health care. But, the report notes, there is a daunting list of tasks that stand in the way.

Among those items: data standards and methods for data collection and analysis must be developed, validated, and broadly accepted before they can influence health care decision-making.

Read the complete article written by John DeGaspari, Healthcare Informatics: Original Article

 

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