The COVID-19 pandemic brought a multitude of changes to healthcare systems and people’s general way of life. Some of these changes, like extensive masking and social distancing, were intended as limited-time precautionary measures. Others, like the accelerated use of telehealth, were effective during the pandemic, but have also proven fruitful as something that should be a part of our lives going forward (See how one GI practice is using telehealth to improve the patient experience).
Another important advancement occurred in the field of data sharing and its impact on public health. While health systems aren’t eager to give away valuable data and, in some cases, don’t even have the data in a shareable format, a pandemic was able to jumpstart sharing initiatives in the name of public health.
One of these collaborative projects was the Minnesota EHR Consortium, which used data found in health records to track vaccination rates and other metrics related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers from Hennepin County, Minnesota have used this collective database to show how shared EHR data may be able to stem public health problems like drug overdoses.
What the researchers found in Hennepin County was a significant increase in emergency hospital visits involving methamphetamine or opioids, mirroring national trends. The study found that the rates for drug-involved visits were higher for Black, multiple-race, and Native American people compared to other groups. These findings, along with the real-time accessibility of EHR data, means that the community can better target preventative measures and properly address care inequities.
EHR data can be enhanced even further by using other available data like the use of housing services or criminal activity involvement. By tying this information back to patients’ medical outcomes, governments can better monitor the efficacy of social programs and identify trends to see where they may lead to early intervention opportunities.
There are further sources of data that could be integrated down the line including the use of emergency medical services data related to overdoses that didn’t result in hospitalization. Datasets can always be enhanced, but the more sources and variables that are involved give more opportunities for stale, hard to integrate, or irrelevant data seeping in.
Because it can be so difficult to combine information from different health systems, the MN EHR Consortium is primarily focusing specifically on social determinants of health and health equity indicators as they relate to specific chronic conditions.
Even with this relatively limited scope, aggregating the data is still a manual task. Currently, the 14 organizations affiliated with the project submit summary data to the Consortium, which is then assembled at a central site, although a set of data standards is in the works. Regardless of the effort, it’s clear that data shared in this manner can be used to have a real impact on public health initiatives.
About the Author: Chris Mack
Chris is a Marketing Manager at Extract with experience in product development, data analysis, and both traditional and digital marketing. Chris received his bachelor’s degree in English from Bucknell University and has an MBA from the University of Notre Dame. A passionate marketer, Chris strives to make complex ideas more accessible to those around him in a compelling way.