Hundreds of billions of gigabytes of health information are now being collected in electronic medical records, and three-quarters (76%) of more than 700 healthcare executives recently surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP agree that the secondary use of this information will be their organization's greatest asset over the next five years. The data that could be mined from the health system can improve patient care, predict public health trends and reduce healthcare costs, but PricewaterhouseCoopers finds lack of standards, privacy concerns and technology limitations are holding back progress.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the healthcare industry won't see the full value of investments in electronic medical records and other health IT investments until it finds secondary uses for the information being gathered. Yet 90 percent of executives surveyed feel the industry needs better guidelines about how health information can be used and shared, and 76 percent feel that national stewardship over, or responsibility for, the use of the health data should be regulated.
In its newly published report "Transforming Healthcare through Secondary Use of Health Data," PricewaterhouseCoopers calls for public-private collaboration and a role for government in creating incentives for the private sector to collect, share and use health data; to establish standards; and to redefine technical architecture to allow interoperability.
Secondary Use of Data Expected to Grow
PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the secondary use of health data is still in its infancy but is expected to grow exponentially as health IT implementation is fueled by federal stimulus funds. The research found:
- Nine in ten healthcare executives believe that the secondary use of health information will significantly improve the quality of patient care and offers the promise of even greater benefits in the future.
- Nearly two thirds (65%) of health organizations say they expect their secondary data use to increase significantly within the next two years.
- Among organizations that already are using some form of secondary data, 59 percent have seen quality improvements, 42 percent have achieved cost savings, 36 percent have seen patient/member satisfaction improve and 29 percent have increased revenue.
De-identified and aggregated health information - collected from electronic health records, insurance claims, clinical trials, lab and radiology results, employer benefits data, disease management companies, even third-party lifestyle data providers - can provide valuable insight to doctors, researchers, manufacturers, and payers. Analysis of the information could identify patterns to improve health outcomes, reduce medical errors, predict health trends, demonstrate the comparative value of drugs and treatments, identify new markets and revenue opportunities, detect fraud and help achieve the huge cost savings promised by the Administration as part of the health reform agenda. PricewaterhouseCoopers' research found:
- The biggest current users of secondary health information are providers, such as hospitals and physicians. Not surprisingly, they have the greatest access to patient health information.
- Those providers who are not currently using secondary data say the number one reason is lack of EHR implementation, not because they are opposed to the concept. Ninety-five percent of providers are not opposed to the concept, though they are clearly considerate of the sensitivities around how the information should be used.
- Health plans are farthest behind in their secondary use of data despite their vast repository of comprehensive claim information from physicians, hospitals, pharmacies and dentists. While information could be collected from personal health records, only 39 percent of health plans surveyed offer personal health records to their members and few members actually use them.
- Ninety percent of pharmaceutical companies have limited or no access to health information contained in electronic health records. They are heavy purchasers of secondary health data, but this is typically not derived from electronic health records. Nearly half (45%) of pharmaceutical companies buy third-party health data, and 17 percent sell aggregated health data.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers' research, most health organizations that use secondary data now do so for their own quality monitoring and reporting and for identifying areas that need quality improvement.
Five Case Studies