3 barriers keeping data from improving health outcomes

Access to actionable, real-time data can create opportunities for physicians to improve the health of their patients, but the current environment often prevents physicians from being able to access and use that data. Find out what three experts think the future holds for data usage and what they say needs to change first. How health data can—and does—save lives Experts recently spoke to the health IT community about current and future uses of data at Health Datapalooza in Washington, D.C. Though there are issues in the current health system that cause problems for data usage in practice, the panelists were first and foremost optimistic about the future. “We are using data to save people’s lives,” said David T. Feinberg, MD, president and CEO of Geisinger Health Systems. For example, his practice saw a 16-year-old girl, who came to the emergency department for dehydration but volunteered for Geisinger’s population health-based genetics program. “We take a look … and it turns out that she has two of the genes associate with fatal cardiac arrhythmias in young athletes,” he said. “She wasn’t dehydrated; it was the beginning of her cardiac symptoms.” “Our data shows that 30 people in her extended family are treated by us,” he said. Geisinger then brought in her family members and set up monitoring for those at risk. “To me, it’s the first time we looked at this kind of information and [could] anticipate what’s going to happen in people...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news