EHRs and Data Collection

The latest issue of the Journal of American Medical Informatics Association features a case report titled:

Opportunities for Electronic Health Record Data to Support Business Functions in the Pharmaceutical Industry—A Case Study from Pfizer, Inc. - you can view an abstract here (you need a subscription to see the full article).

I am all in favor of data collection and firmly believe that we must move to a data rich model in healthcare to allow the use of technology to support all the complex interactions and activities associated with the delivery of care. But the capture and collection of data has to be linked to a value for the beleaguered physician who is more often than not the one tasked with the collection.

What I found interesting about this paper was the focus on pharmacy data – not surprising given the authors affiliation but this particular quote stuck out

“Drug Safety & Surveillance,” “Clinical Trial Recruitment,” and “Support Regulatory Approval” were the most oft-mentioned scenarios during the interviews (Table 2), in which the senior executives believed that EHR data would prove valuable.

Drug Safety and Surveillance is a genuine crowd pleaser but Clinical trial recruitment and Support Regulatory approval is not likely to feature in many clinicians minds who are facing a waiting room chocked full of patients. Then in the summary

While EHRs can clearly provide some support to the pharmaceutical industry for data re-use, an ongoing dialogue must continue among EHR companies, research based organizations, and the pharmaceutical industry to ensure that the data being captured, aggregated, and analyzed can produce the value necessary for all stakeholders.

The problem is while the Pharmaceutical industry can see great value in the data from the EHR's they do not (or cannot) provide resources to help capture it. Everyone is tuned to the same radio station – WIFM (What’s in it for me) and in the case of the beleaguered physician there is little if anything in capturing data to suit the Pharma companies that offers the physician anything in return….. so why should they focus or pay any attention to this need of Pharma companies.

Better to focus on the opportunities related to:

1. Improve quality of care
2. Provide support to the delivery of that care, and
3. Save the physician time
   

All this needs to occur while helping clinicians capture more complete information at the point of care. Doing so will support the above elements but from the business perspective will show capture the information to prove the physician is performing all the relevant tasks to allow them to bill effectively. To that point in For the Record Magazine: Getting in Tune — New Survey Spotlights the MT’s Role in Healthcare. The article reviews the results of the "2007 Survey of Medical Transcriptionists". The lead author Gary David, PhD, an associate professor of sociology at Bentley College reviews some of the studies findings

One of the quotes sums up the current state of affairs

“Doctors do not generate revenue; documents do"

Or put another way "If it's not Documented then it didn't happen" (one of many references to this)