19th International CODATA Conference
Category: Data Visualisation

Data for Decision Making in Health
Christian Bourret and Gabriella Salzano
University of Marne-la-Vallée, France


In developed countries, nowadays we work in a networked society : society of information, knowledge and services, with strong specificities in Health field. For World Health Organization, information is the key for health for everybody. Health costs represents 10.5 % of GNP in France, 11 % in Germany and 14 % in USA. Governments, local powers, health or insurance organizations must make difficult choices in terms of opportunity and priority and they need specific and valuable data.
In this communication, we'll analyze the importance of Data for Decision Making in Health in two levels : requirements and main issues (challenges).

Requirements
Data for Decision Making in Health are necessary at 3 levels : between patients and physicians (micro), in the community or in society (meso) and in regional powers or governments (macro) and with 3 major content dimensions : quality, ethics, economics (effectiveness).

In other words:

  • to plan the evolution of establishments (hospitals) : creating or closing, so in France SROS (Regional Plans for Organizing Care) or sanitary maps and the links with territory planning with the challenge of different powers between States and regions levels.
  • to foresee Public Health problems such as disease or consequences of cold and hot weather especially on weak people.
  • to manage health organizations (Managed Care) for example in France PMSI and in future budgeting from activities costs with the central issue of evaluation.
  • But also the challenge of managing the care itself : traceability of patient pathways.

Challenges
Main issues in Health field are challenges of information sharing:

  • interoperability between various information systems (hospitals, doctors, British Primary Care Trusts, Health Maintenance Organizations in USA or Health Insurance in France, compagnies …)
  • identifiants issues and security & confidentiality stakes
  • shared Electronic Health Records

A central question is about the " right " information for decision making with for example the problem of opposite representations between doctors and managers.

We will consider various aspects of these points in the difficult construction of Health planning methodology.