True innovation requires the space to think bigger and work more effectively. Unfortunately, if you’re bogged down trying to figure out how to standardize data from a variety of sources like governments, payers, and provider organizations…well, that space can be hard to find. Additionally, if you have a large volume of data to normalize, and lack the right solutions to help, the rate at which you can improve your own products will slow.
The challenge, however, is finding the right solution(s).
Leave your lab data to the experts
From hospitals and health systems to health IT organizations, aggregated information is everywhere. However, this data is often missing important details and may not be connected to the appropriate standardized codes. This can be especially true of highly detailed concepts like medication and laboratory data, where a standardized code needs to convey more than just a test’s name. In these cases it must also communicate information such as dosage or unit of measurement in a way that makes sense and is machine computable.
But if an organization can’t maintain semantic interoperability – ensuring a clinical term and standardized code preserve the meaning of patient information when transferred between systems – important details can be lost.
Take on more with supporting clinical terminology
Achieving semantic interoperability is easier when you can leverage the expertise of an organization that understands and embraces the foundational value of clinical terminology mapped to the right codes. At its core, this expertise is key to preserving granular information as it moves across the healthcare ecosystem.
The choice then, is quite simple: spend valuable time and internal resources tackling inconsistent and unreliable data or rely on a partner who has already solved that dilemma and can clear the way for you to innovate faster with more accurate information.
For one of the largest and most robust healthcare information exchange (HIE) networks in the United States, the path forward was clear. CORHIO, part of Contexture, wanted to expand their scope but found that incomplete and inconsistent data was holding them back. So they partnered with IMO to help standardize their lab data – with impressive results. Read about the impact of IMO’s robust clinical terminology on CORHIO’s laboratory data in this case study.
