OpenApp : Our growth into a Big Data company

For years we have branded OpenApp around 'openness' and avoided the other tech hype cycles, teleMedicine, Cloud, SaaS, OpenData, Bring Your Own Device, et cetera. However from further research into health technology we have begun to understand the Big Data hype and are beginning to have a play here in health. Our open approach supporting democratization in healthcare, we are working with Pharma and Genbanks to tie in with the research communities, our registries are patient centric, our analytics are highlighting very precise patterns in performance and delivery and we are collaborating with many healthcare agencies in developing quality assurance programmes and methodologies.

These five health IT predictions for the coming year pins their hopes on the potential of big data to support healthcare reform.

In 2014, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) put a strong stake in the health IT landscape, shifting critical healthcare conversations from simple theory to reality. Today, all healthcare stakeholders — providers, payers and technology vendors — are getting serious about making healthcare delivery more efficient and more effective. Even the big tech players like Apple, Oracle, and IBM have joined the “fix healthcare parade,” all having made major moves in healthcare this year.

One area of health IT that really took off this past year is big data.

There is a growing thirst for quality, fact-based information in healthcare. As providers begin to place more and more focus on aggregating and analyzing patient data from various sources (e.g., EMRs, administrative systems, claims processing systems) and determining how to make the best use of all this important information, clinicians are increasingly seeing value in evidence-based decision-making. As we move into 2015, big data will no doubt continue to play a key role in moving the needle on improving care delivery and patient outcomes.

Given the changing healthcare landscape, we predict the following for 2015:

Physicians will begin to embrace rather than abhor EMRs.

Hospitals and practices across the country have struggled over the years to get physicians on board with their EMR adoption initiatives. For the most part, physicians have been reluctant to embrace EMR technology as an aide and making it a part of their daily workflow.

However, as big data begins to contribute more meaningfully to patient care, we will see physicians increasingly realize the potential value of the EMR as guidance to improve clinical decisions rather than simply storage for patient information. Clinical decision support tools for “just-in-time” patient care will be valuable features in the next generation of EMRs. One day in the future, EMRs will even replace medical literature and clinical trials for evidence-based medical analysis and support.

We will see a rise in the democratization of health information.

Historically, there has always been an immense gap between provider and consumer access to health information. With healthcare increasingly becoming more personalized, this gap is slowly closing. Providers, payers, publishers, and even pharmaceutical companies have all shifted their focus to meeting consumers where they are and delivering the information they want, when they want it and in the format they want. This means we will see a big spike in innovations in new care delivery approaches, such as mobile health, telemedicine, and retail medicine solutions in the coming year.

Pharma will take more of a care provider or services role in healthcare.

Pharma marketers are beginning to understand the need to go beyond customer acquisition to truly improve treatment adherence and drug efficacy for consumers. They are quickly realizing that those who move in this direction are those who will ultimately succeed. As a result, pharma companies will start to look at themselves more as providers of services rather than drug developers in the traditional sense.

A massive data breach will force real action around health data privacy.

In 2015, a bigger-than-ever data breach will shake up the healthcare industry, forcing a reckoning around health data ownership and control. The industry will realize the need to build a truly reliable framework around health data privacy and security.

Quality will rise as the future king of the industry.

As the shift from fee-for-service care to population health management grows, providers will increasingly place emphasis on the quality of care rather than the number of procedures delivered. Consequently, payers and providers will invest more in health information technology that helps identify patients who are at high risk for care setbacks, hospital readmissions, and other poor outcomes. The EMR companies themselves will be further challenged to open up their closed system environments as doctors and health systems demand easier access to their patient data.

Dean Stephens is the CEO of Healthline, a leading provider of intelligent health information and technology solutions. For more information about Healthline, visit http://corp.healthline.com.