With the continuous development in today’s globalized landscape, several industries are incorporating digital and technical innovations. And the healthcare industry is no exception.
The healthcare industry is undergoing an obvious digital transformation. Some of these transformations include the rise of electronic health records (EHRs), healthcare data is growing exponentially. This surge of data highlights the need for proper data governance to harness it as a strategic asset. By rising to these pressing new challenges, healthcare organizations can tap into the true potential of data to drive care and research, while remaining compliant data stewards. The time for robust data governance in healthcare is now. But what exactly is data governance in healthcare? Let’s explore its key components, the role of data stewards, and the challenges of implementing it.
What is Data Governance in Healthcare
Data governance definition encompasses the overall management of data availability, integrity, security, and usability within an organization. For healthcare providers, it means establishing guidelines for how data is accessed, stored, shared, and used across the institution. Data governance also helps avoid critical issues like duplicate records, outdated templates, and inconsistent data collection. It also ensures compliance with regulations like HIPAA. The key principles of healthcare data governance include:
1. Data Quality:
Data governance ensures the quality of data. It does this by ensuring that the data is complete, accurate, and timely. To achieve this, the healthcare sector is expected to set standards and metrics for data collection.
2. Data Security:
It is no news that the health instruction uses critical and delicate personal information that must be kept secure and private. To achieve compliance with HIPAA, healthcare sectors must protect confidential data through access controls, encryption, auditing, and monitoring, among other data protection protocols.
3. Compliance:
The healthcare data governance procedures must adhere to industry regulations on how data is managed across its lifecycle. The industry must stay updated on regulatory changes concerning data handling and usage.
The Current State of Clinical Data in Healthcare
Before delving into the essence of these data governance, it is necessary to understand that the healthcare sector faces major challenges in leveraging its clinical data. According to one estimate, large clinical data sets are often unorganized, missing, and inadequate. These down sides make the analysis and interpretation of data incredibly difficult. But with data governance, the health care sector can leverage readily available guidelines to address these issues. Data governance enables data accessibility while maintaining compliance with healthcare regulations. By using robust governance, organizations can seamlessly harness data’s true potential .
Shortcomings of Current Clinical Data
Data Silos
This has to do with the compartment in which data is contained. Data is confined in departmental silos, unable to be linked or leveraged enterprise-wide. It becomes challenging to utilize this data to deliver quality services.
Inaccurate Data
Recall that data is raw and gathered from different sources. The process of data collection and recording processes are inconsistent which often leads to errors and inaccuracies. Critical patient data may be incomplete or duplicated.
Outdated Legacy Systems
Work health care sectors make use of rigid, legacy IT systems which makes it hard to access and analyze data. Outdated legacy lacks interoperability.
Limited Analytics
Basic reporting and descriptive analytics predominate. Predictive modeling and algorithms can unlock deeper insights from data.
Privacy Constraints
Strict data privacy regulations like HIPAA limit certain analytics and data sharing important for research.
Trends Making Data Governance Crucial in Modern Healthcare
Data Explosion
Healthcare data volume is exploding at an astounding rate. It’s projected to hit 2,314 exabytes globally by 2020. Harnessing this tsunami of data is impossible without end-to-end governance.
Emerging Technologies
Cutting-edge innovations like AI, genomic sequencing, wearables and telehealth are generating new, complex data types and sources. Outdated governance strategies won’t cut it — new frameworks are needed.
Evolving Regulations
Compliance requirements are continuously changing and expanding. For example, rules on patient data access and sharing with third parties are being updated. This demands vigilant governance to avoid penalties.
Empowered Patients
Today’s patients are more informed and engaged with their own health data. They expect easy access to their information via patient portals and mobile apps. Meticulous data stewardship is required to fulfill these consumer demands.
Growing Cyber Threats
Ransomware attacks on hospitals have increased rapidly, with over 70% of malware attacks targeting the healthcare sector. Bulletproof data security through governance is now an imperative.
Global Pandemics
As of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic underscored the need for quick and extensive data sharing between providers, researchers and public health agencies to understand and treat the disease. This requires modern governance strategies.
The Journey of Robust Data Governance
With a thoughtful approach, healthcare organizations can engrain data governance into everyday operations. This sector will be able to maintain compliance with stipulated regulations and improve operations. Here is how data governance may be successfully implemented;
- Cross-functional Team: IT, clinicians, executives and other stakeholders must collaborate on data strategies.
- Policies and Processes: Comprehensive policies for data lifecycle management should be established.
- Master Data Management: Creating a “single source of truth” for key data elements through consolidation.
- Data Stewardship: Assigning responsibility for managing, monitoring and protecting data assets.
- Continuous Improvement: Regular audits and feedback loops to enhance data quality and governance.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are the top challenges for data governance in healthcare?
A: Some major challenges include siloed, inaccurate or duplicate data, lack of data standards, organizational buy-in, and difficulty centralizing data from disparate systems. Legacy technologies can also impede efforts.
What impact can data governance have on patient care?
A: Robust data governance improves accuracy of patient information. It enhances interoperability and data sharing between providers to inform better clinical decisions. Patients also benefit from smoother access to their own medical information.
What steps can organizations take to get started with data governance?
Key steps include assessing current data challenges, establishing a cross-functional data governance team, selecting technology tools, defining policies, training staff on governance protocols, and monitoring/optimizing governance efforts.
Conclusion
Data is the backbone of modern healthcare. With careful governance, organizations can harness its power to enhance care and research while maintaining compliance and security. Data governance provides the guidelines and management structure to overcome these challenges. It ensures seamless data accessibility and quality while maintaining compliance with healthcare regulations. Only with robust governance can healthcare organizations truly harness the power of data to drive better care, research and decision making. By bringing key stakeholders together and instituting thoughtful processes, healthcare providers can make data work for them rather than against them. Also, by following clear guidelines which are readily accessible, they’re better equipped to leverage data as a strategic asset in today’s digital landscape.