AMA Launches Platform to Unite Health Data
The association aims to unite all stakeholders across the health IT ecosystem on an easy-to-use, organized platform that ultimately hopes to foster better patient care.
The American Medical Association has launched a new platform that aims to unite all stakeholders across health and technology on a common data model that can help clinicians to organize and exchange health data.
Alongside industry partners such as IBM, Cerner, Intermountain Healthcare and others, the AMA developed the Integrated Health Model Initiative (IHMI) platform to offer the healthcare community a “shared framework for organizing health data, emphasizing patient centric information, and refining data elements to those most predictive of achieving better outcomes,” according to a press release.
“We spend more than three trillion dollars a year on health care in America and generate more health data than ever before. Yet some of the most meaningful data — data to unlock potential improvements in patient outcomes — is fragmented, inaccessible or incomplete,” AMA CEO James L. Madara said in a statement. “The collaborative effort of IHMI will help the health system learn how to collect, organize, and exchange patient-centered data in a common structure that captures what is most important for improving care and long-term wellness, and transform the data into a rich stream of accessible and actionable information.”
The common data model aims to shift clinicians away from cumbersome and tiring data structures and toward a streamlined data approach that can help to foster better patient care.
The AMA and industry partners will continue to refine the model and add additional stakeholders to the platform in the coming year.