Physician and provider data as a service

Foliomed provides an ingredient to the healthcare community that will soon become as important as corn is to the food industry. That analogy may feel a bit odd until one remembers how many corn-based products are added to food or used to create food. We don’t even see its importance until one digs down into the ingredient list.   Of the 45,000 items in the average supermarket, fully 25% contain processed corn. If one considers just a few of the top food brands in the world, like Coke, Pepsi, General Mills and every fast food restaurant then the primacy of corn derived food products in the US and around the world becomes more evident.

My point is that given the huge Federally subsidized new investments being made in Electronic Medical Record Systems and the mandated creation of Health Information Exchanges ,verifiable provider data is becoming a key ingredient.  Today, high quality provider data is not a staple data set in most healthcare organizations. The accuracy level of most provider databases within a single health care organization is suggested to be at 70%.  This is 70% accuracy rate is only for an organizations own physician data. Most health care organizations have little knowledge of Statewide accuracy let alone inter State provider databases.

The start point and/or end point in any electronic health record transaction going forward will need to involve physician data.  The patient record transaction can not occur  or will be  greatly delayed unless the originating point of  provider data and the terminating point of provider data are verified and secured. Patient records  can’t be transmitted electronically unless this happens.

With the addition of multiple points and methods of contacting providers the complexity of maintaining this core ingredient will grow. Furthermore,maintaining the relationship with referring providers is key to the financial stability of all healthcare organizations.

Very few of  us and none of  the large food service companies choose to grow their own corn and add it into the food we create.  We leave it to the experts and farmers to continue to improve this key ingredient year after year. Foliomed’s Provider Data as a Service can be seen by health care organizations in the same way.  It will become a key ingredient in everything they do.