Who Will Tame Healthcare Data
Despite the efforts of a dedicated R&D center for digital transformation in public health (CNIIOIz), collection and analysis of business data in the Russian public health system is still insufficient. To address this issue, the sector will need additional funding to implement and maintain digital infrastructure in public health organizations and administrating authorities – said Guzel Ulumbekova, President of the Higher School of Healthcare Management, yesterday, March 23, at the “Digital Medicine 2023” conference.
Adverse circumstances include excessiveness of report forms (medical organizations work with over 600 report forms and 40 forms of state and sector statistical reporting). Besides, different reporting forms can address the same information. “A striking case is that health organizations have to submit reports using both standard statistical data forms and OMS forms,” Ulumbekova pointed out.
Cinimex’s Data Lab Project Manager Rodion Martynov commented: “First of all, properly organized business data can enhance the efficiency of public health organizations and improve their financial performance. Looking at the real state of affairs, I cannot but agree with Ms. Ulumbekova. Our company’s experience in business analytics and other data-related activities demonstrates that to solve the problem, you need to unify different types of data and collection tools across all organizations, automate the process itself. It is important to gather raw data and not just completed reports, and unify data collection tools. Technologies and tools of data quality control are a must, and you may even want to have a dedicated team for this task. Besides, you can look into the potential of “Open Data”, which would help enhance control over health organizations, improve inter-departmental cooperation between public health institutions and engage more and more people into data analysis.”