Impact of “Big Data” in Health Care

A Recent report from McKinsey & Company on the evolution of information technology focuses on health care as a sector to watch: “For instance, if US health care could use big data creatively and effectively to drive efficiency and quality, we estimate that the potential value from data in the sector could be more than $300 billion in value every year, two-thirds of which would be in the form of reducing national health care expenditures by about 8 percent.” Full report at http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/publications/big_data/index.asp

Health Information Exchange

Earlier this month Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, published a letter describing the benefits of health information exchange.  In his letter, Dr. Blumenthal highlights four aims of health information exchange in the HITECH Act:

  • It squarely tackles commercial barriers
  • It tackles the economic barriers
  • It tackles the technical barriers
  • It provides building blocks for information exchange across jurisdictions 

In Washington,  OneHealthPort has been designated the lead organization for Washington Health Information Exchange.  Approximately $11.3 Million of federal funding is expected during the first quarter of 2010 for Washington based health information exchange activities. 

To read Dr. Blumenthal’s letter in its entirety please click here.