Efforts to modernize healthcare data advancing

Dr. Tabitha Offutt-Powell, vice president, Public Health Data Modernization and Informatics, speaks at HIMSS25 in Las Vegas Monday.

Photo: Jeff Lagasse/Healthcare Finance News

LAS VEGAS – Healthcare, as a business, lives and dies on the data. The goal of public health data modernization is to move from silos, brittle public health data systems to connected, resilient and sustainable “response-ready” systems that can help to solve problems before they happen.

Speaking during the public health data modernization forum at the HIMSS25 conference in Las Vegas Monday, Dr. Tabitha Offutt-Powell, vice president, Public Health Data Modernization and Informatics, said data modernization isn’t just about the technology, but putting the right people and processes in place.

“I always think about the endpoint,” she said. “We have to have the systems and the infrastructure in place to do it.”

Technology is evolving, she said, but with that come challenges and limitations. The priorities for data modernization efforts are to generate easily understandable data, and to create an infrastructure for doing so by building partnerships with states and healthcare delivery systems.

The goal is to have data that can be rapidly analyzed, visualized and interpreted appropriately.

“We can make sure all the different systems we’re building don’t just support one area within public health, but can support all areas in public health,” said Offutt-Powell.

An informatics workforce is key in this effort, because without a skilled workforce, these data modernization priorities can’t move forward effectively. They require senior public health leadership support to move into actual implementation.

Key strategies for advancing the work, said Offutt-Powell, include reducing silos, adopting national data standards and adopting modern, flexible technologies, including utilizing cloud services.

The informatics workforce has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, but there’s still a need for skilled informatics staff across scientific disciplines. In terms of focus areas for improvement, 93% of respondents to a recent survey cited by NAME said electronic case reporting is a priority, while 87% cited notabler and reportable diseases and 82% cited patient records.

Jeff Lagasse is editor of Healthcare Finance News.
Email: jlagasse@himss.org
Healthcare Finance News is a HIMSS Media publication.