Sometimes vendors do get it (mostly) right. Hewlett-Packard put together a brief white paper in February of this year laying out their view of Business Intelligence (BI) for 2009 (and beyond). I think that they got it largely right. Their #7 trend is an increasing corporate focus on rigorous data integration, including data cleansing, Master Data and Metadata Management, all as part of a comprehensive Enterprise Information Management (EIM) Strategy. Below is a summary of the trend, my thoughts on whether HP got it right and what the trend may mean for HIT.
HIT Impact: Sine Qua Non. If the impact of Trend #3 was immense, I’m not sure if there is a word expansive enough for the impact of Trend #7. The two trends are obviously related and both are in the critical path to achieving “meaningful use”, even as hazily defined as it is in ARRA. However, DI goes far beyond DQ and DG (many experts argue that DI is inclusive of both). By definition, the scope of DI is inter-source and inter-application, whereas DQ and DG minimally only require an intra-source, intra-application scope. Articles and opinions too numerous to cite have unequivocably identified redundancy, inconsistent and conflicting syntaxes, and poor coordination as key drivers of inefficiency and cost in the U.S. Healthcare system. Effective, efficient and correct DI is a necessary (albeit not sufficient) pre-condition for fixing our broken healthcare system.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.
