Priority Area 7: Use Your Data

Data is the engine of improvement. The American health care system stands out relative to other sectors of the economy and relative to the health systems of other nations as operating with limited data. Its roots are paper medical records, payment methods that are treated as trade secrets, and fragmented delivery systems and payers, each of which owns its own data.

There are myriad provisions in the health reform law that call for the collection of new data. Data elements include race, ethnicity and language, price and utilization, program enrollment, and quality metrics. New data will be collected on, among other things, consumer complaints, wellness programs, the prevalence of chronic diseases, and the health care workforce.

Effective use of data requires a commitment to collect it, a strategy to combine data that come from different sources, and selection of priority areas for analysis. Under the provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, each state has already developed health information exchange strategic and operational plans. These plans should be updated to reflect the new data provisions and to refine the approach to placing appropriate subsets of the data in the public domain where it can become a force for improvement. Purchasers—individuals, employers, public purchasers and the exchange—can use data to drive improvement in outcomes and quality. Doctors, hospitals, and health systems can use data to achieve the same ends. The state can aggregate data across systems to monitor population health, identify priorities for improvement, and track progress toward improvement goals.