Electronic health records and other data-driven healthcare technologies offer potential for streamlining care delivery, as long as they are equipped with the right data and tools to make use of it, a report released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Technology Engagement Center said.
Improving existing medical records by integrating genetic information, data from wearable devices, and social determinants of health will help empower patients, physicians and other healthcare administrators access and deliver more personalized and effective care, the “Data for Good” report noted.
While the authors wrote that the push for more data creates valid concerns about patient privacy and security, data also poses many opportunities to improve society by enhancing public and personal security, expanding financial inclusion, promoting economic development, bolstering public health, and fostering innovation through tools such as artificial intelligence.
“Relationships between factors, symptoms and treatments on the one hand can be analyzed with outcomes to see who is more likely at risk for certain health problems and which treatments or combinations of treatments are most successful in treating the patient,” the authors said. “Researchers will have a new resource to improve medicine, and to the extent that records also capture costs or can be linked to costs, administrators may be in a better position to identify where expended resources are utilized more wisely and where patient outcomes are better.”
