Today there are numerous discussions about HIE, Meaningful Use, RHIO’s, EMR, and the list goes on. What is consistent about all of these? To quote a colleague several years ago “It is all about the data!”
As I work with multiple clients in support of their architecture strategy, I find that IT organizations have challenges with managing and understanding the overall breadth of all their data. There are multiple systems spanning several business functions often with vast duplication of information. This not only affects the IT organizations ability to develop, test and roll out new capabilities, this inhibits the business’s ability to provide customer facing initiatives such as EMR, HIE, etc.
Understanding the enterprise data and its pedigree is very important in any organization and must be addressed as a part of the overall architecture strategy and roadmap prior to jumping head-long into new initiatives. Personally, I find that it is a “fun” challenge to dive into the architecture and understand the inner relationships of the business systems by following the paths of the data. Ultimately, with a well-documented understanding of the “As-Is” picture of current systems and data, we can help our clients leverage that knowledge to provide higher value. IT organizations need to provide the business with timely and meaningful information; that information is all based on the data.
