What if healthcare data were organized more like Facebook and Amazon consumer data?
There were likely be more interoperability and easier access to the patient's full treatment history, according to a HealthData Management report.
Traditional electronic medical record data is considered a relational database, compiling multiple tables of information for transactional systems. EMR can work within the currently siloed hospitals and health systems, providing information from one silo to another. However, integration is the name of the game in healthcare today and the goal among many provider systems is to break those silos and provider better patient care.
And providers need better data gathering and reporting technology to fully make that transition.
Online companies like Facebook and Amazon use graph databases to interpret the relationships between data. The graph database design allows social media applications and consumer-based companies build networks.
Switching to graph databases in healthcare has significant potential to integrate providers and build a more sophisticated portrait for each patient. Here are five core examples of how healthcare information would change with graph databases:
1. Providers could see which other clinicians treated their patients from across the provider spectrum.
2. When new members are added to the patient's care team, they can see the patient's provider map and events linked to that patient. They can also see the other providers' roles, practice locations and schedules.
3. The graph databases could allow organizations to clearly see whether bills and payments are appropriately allocated and submitted to providers on the team, which will become more important in a value-based reimbursement system and bundled payment arrangements.
4. The patient's information would include lab test results as well as information surrounding the test, such as the provider responsible for the test order, provider ID and the number of times that provider saw the patient last year. This information would show when a medication was prescribed as a result of lab tests and when the patient filled the last prescription.
5. Graph technology can simplify notifications regarding the patient's meaningful events, including care transitions. It's easier to alert the right people about the patient's clinical events when the organization has a full picture of the other care team members.