Author: Keith Blankenship

For years, vendors in the population health management space have been pushing technology as the solution to the inefficiency of the healthcare system. Many people believed that if you could gather the data and integrate it together, you could improve quality, cut costs and make everyone happy. But, we are now at a point where we see that technology alone is not the answer.

“Big data” has become a big, intimidating buzz phrase in health care. Health systems and provider groups are all trying to collect large amounts of clinical data, make it meaningful, and according to the American Hospital Association, use it to “facilitate the coordination of patient care across conditions, providers, settings, and time.” While collecting clinical data is a natural first step on the road to value-based care, the integration of that data is often complex, costly and time consuming.