Data Governance and Strategies for Data Integration
Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the overall adoption of electronic health records and other ancillary systems in health systems across the United States. This has led to a corresponding increase in the volume and breadth of data that are generated during the course of health care operations. Institutions have a strong desire to mine this information for analytic, improvement and research purposes. Most efforts involve the integration of data from multiple source systems, transformation and synthesis into a consolidated view. Several common strategies exist, including the use of data warehouses or integrated data repositories, as well as the creation of project-specific data marts. We describe several of the most common data models used to when creating integrated data repositories for research purposes, as well as the basic steps required for implementation. We also discuss the importance of data governance in healthcare, which includes the tools, policies and procedures that ensure data are used effectively within an institution. This includes efforts around data characterization and data quality, the use of data stewards, management of metadata, and more.
