Cycle of health information in evidence-based medicine
In the idealized cycle of health information in evidence-based medicine where database systems offer information sharing service for doctors, medical researchers, medical institutions, and patients, the doctors and researchers can easily query and analyze medical information with much greater speed, security, and ease. However, in the real world, such system cannot be successfully maintained due to a number of challenges.
Vest and Gamm (2010) specify that to date, healthcare is facing a problem of fragmented creation and storage of medical information. This issue continues to persist regardless of the federal actions and policies that attempt to encourage the adoption of HIE (health information exchange) (Vest & Gamm, 2010). The isolation and fragmentation of health information occur due to the relocation of the patients.
For instance, an elderly person with a chronic condition (such as diabetes) could be treated by many different institutions and organizations on a seasonal basis. As a result, the health information of this individual ends up being fragmented and stored in many databases. A patient may be displaced because of individual and environmental factors (personal choice or natural disasters). Being treated by the professionals unfamiliar with the medical history of the patient who do not have access to this information may result in low-quality services or threats to the health and life of the patient.
The achievement of the ideal setting where the information is shared freely by all the medical organizations can be facilitated by such factors as the reliable national clinical infrastructure, nationwide sharing of information, and the private and public awareness of and compliance with the security measures (NH-ISAC, n. d.). As noted by NH-ISAC (n. d.), in order to create and support resilient healthcare information exchange and prevent cyber threats and weaknesses, the infrastructure requires “intelligence-driven advanced and secure real-time sector and cross-sector situational awareness, two-way information sharing capabilities, access to actionable intelligence, countermeasure solutions and incident response” (para. 6).
Important challenges for health care providers
There is a number of important challenges with reports produced for health care providers, managers, directors, and executives. In particular, AHRQ (2007) specifies that there are several factors that contribute to the inefficiencies related to the collection and reporting of data. To be more precise, there are variations in data collection methods and forms due to the utilization of varied taxonomies; as a result of this tendency, the collected data may vary in its quality which complicates the further application and use of it (AHRQ, 2007). Besides, there are technological barriers reflected in the disparate systems and the employees’ failure to perform appropriate coding.
This challenge complicates the work of both – the providers of reports, and the users of data. In particular, the processing of data, presented based on a variety of taxonomies and methods, is more difficult and time-consuming; also, its complex interpretation inevitably results in the obstacles to the effective and fast policy-making (Miranda, 2007). As a result, the reporting strategies and processes are to be simplified for the optimization of work of both parties.
However, it a sector as diverse as healthcare, the adoption of generalized schemes and plans could result in adverse outcomes in a form of the decrease in quality of the service provision, policy- and decision-making, and research. That way, the quality improvement based on the sponsorship and use of reports may be fostered only with the agreement of the two parties as to the measurement and format if the documentation.
References
AHRQ. (2007). AHRQ Conference on Health Care Data Collection and Reporting. Web.
Miranda, D. J. (2007). Health Care Quality Reporting: Changes and Challenges. Health Care Financing Review, 28(3), 1-4.
NH-ISAC, (n. d.). Security Intelligence & Information Sharing. Web.
Vest, J. R., & Gamm, L. D. (2010). Health information exchange: persistent challenges and new strategies. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 17(3), 288–294. Web.