Healthcare is built on communication. However, when different providers and payers use different terminology for the same condition, critical details can be lost in translation. In a recent episode of Healthcare In Action, Ivana Naeymi-Rad, COO of IMO Health, sat down with THL’s John Lange to discuss how standardized clinical terminology, AI, and structured data are reshaping healthcare delivery.
Here’s what we learned:
The key to better patient outcomes? Standardized clinical terminology.
Medical documentation should empower physicians, not slow them down. Yet, many providers struggle with fragmented data systems that make it harder to get a complete view of a patient’s history. Naeymi-Rad explains:
“So, one of the key values is the fact that when you capture data that is specific and granular and in the terms that the clinician wants to capture that data in, it facilitates a more accurate clinical representation of that patient. Everyone has more than one provider that they’re working with, and so when you’re sharing data across your care team, you want to ensure that they’re all speaking the same language.”
Lange reinforced the importance of this shared medical language:
“Maybe, in other words, IMO Health allows doctors to speak doctor. And for those like me who aren’t doctors, it’s something I wouldn’t have thought about before getting to know IMO Health, that there is a language associated with medicine, and there are real benefits to having everyone speak the same language. And you and your team over 30 years have really written the dictionary for that language.”
This clarity ensures that every provider, whether at a small clinic or a major hospital, has access to the same, precise information. As a result, diagnoses become more accurate, treatments more personalized, and patient outcomes significantly improve.
Predicting health threats and advancing life sciences with clinical data
Real-time clinical data isn’t just useful for individual patients – it can help identify and track public health threats, sometimes faster than government agencies. Naeymi-Rad revealed that:
“IMO Health can predict when there are outbreaks around the country in real-time, and there’s actually been a report out of the CDC about the fact that IMO Health is able to more rapidly predict outbreaks than the CDC is. So, we see there being opportunities around clinical surveillance with various public health organizations to leverage that data.”
But the value of precise, structured clinical data goes beyond public health surveillance. In the life sciences sector, it plays a crucial role in accelerating medical research and clinical trials. Naeymi-Rad highlighted how IMO Health’s data-driven insights are making a tangible difference:
“The other use case is in life sciences, you know, when they’re looking for clinical trial eligibility and that example of we were only able to find five patients with this rare disease in five years. Looking at our data for that use case, we were able to find a few hundred in minutes.”
This capability isn’t theoretical – it’s already happening. IMO Health’s clinical surveillance insights are helping public health organizations detect trends early, allowing for quicker responses to emerging diseases. Meanwhile, in life sciences, the ability to rapidly and accurately identify niche patient populations is streamlining research and bringing groundbreaking treatments to market faster.
AI and machine learning: The silent forces behind medical data
AI has been a hidden powerhouse in healthcare for decades, but its role is expanding. When discussing AI’s impact, Naeymi-Rad noted:
“I think AI is kind of the key word that so many people are talking about right now, and what’s important to note is that we’ve been leveraging AI now for over two decades. Not generative AI, but we’re using machine learning. We’re using deep learning. There are a number of natural language processing solutions that we’ve developed over the years. And what’s really exciting about where AI is going is the computing power that enables us to build some of these GPTs, these large language models, and really process our understanding of language in ways that we just weren’t able to before in healthcare.”
By integrating AI with clinical documentation, providers can automate tedious administrative tasks, reduce errors, and spend more time focusing on patients. It also helps uncover patterns in health data, leading to earlier diagnoses and improved treatment strategies.
The human impact of data standardization
Beyond AI and efficiency, Naeymi-Rad shared a personal story that underscores the real-world consequences of fragmented medical data. When her sister-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer while pregnant, a missing detail in her medical record nearly led to a dangerous prescription error. Naeymi-Rad recalls:
“When the data was transferred over, the estrogen receptor-positive part of that diagnosis was cut off. Because that EHR that it was sent to didn’t have the ability to capture that level of specificity. So what ended up happening was the dermatologist prescribed her some medication that was estrogen impacting, which could have been extremely damaging to her treatment plan.”
Lange highlighted how this example illustrates a broader problem in healthcare:
“You know, we spend our time thinking about healthcare IT and data, and it’s sort of easy to get lost in the nuances of it and the technicalities of it. And it’s so easy to forget that this is impacting patients and having the wrong data or having systems that don’t talk to each other, that aren’t interoperable – it can really be dangerous. It can lead to terrible outcomes.”
Thankfully, a family member in medicine caught the mistake – but this happens to patients across the country every day. Standardized terminology and interoperability aren’t just technical issues; they’re a matter of patient safety.
Conclusion: The future of healthcare data
IMO Health is at the forefront of a movement to make healthcare data more precise, accessible, and actionable. As Naeymi-Rad envisions:
“Every patient is unique. Every one of us has a unique fingerprint. How can we ensure that all of us get the best care possible? IMO Health is playing a huge role in enabling that.”
From improving provider efficiency to enhancing public health intelligence and expediting clinical research, IMO Health’s work is setting a new standard for healthcare data. As AI and data-driven insights continue to evolve, the future of patient care will be more personalized, accurate, and efficient than ever before.
