What's the Value? Integrating Multiple Sources of Data to Provide Quality Care to Patients

Health data are routinely collected for multiple purposes, from multiple sources. Utilization data at the systems level documents billable health care provider visits, procedures, hospitalizations, and associated diagnoses. Electronic medical record (EMR) data at the patient and clinician level records clinical indicators such as blood pressure, lab values, health conditions, and referrals. From the patient’s perspective, patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) are collected to better understand and measure health-related quality of life, health status, and experiences with healthcare. These three pillars of health data are important and offer a comprehensive view of health and health service use from different perspectives; however, they are rarely integrated, if at all.

The challenges to this type of data integration are numerous and include privacy and custodianship/data ownership considerations, as well as limitations of cohesive technology. In this panel, we will hear from a variety of perspectives, with the aim of identifying successes and potential solutions to these challenges. We will discuss the inclusion of patients in health data integration processes to improve health data usage and support innovation towards data integration at multiple levels. There are currently several pan-Canadian initiatives underway to better integrate these data sources and report more comprehensive health outcomes. The panel participants are experts and able to share stories about these initiatives.

This session will foster rich discussion among the panelists, and reach out to the audience members for questions, comments, and ideas. Everyone will be invited to contribute.