Health Data Emerges From the Silos

The volume of data in the world has been increasing exponentially for several years, and perhaps 30% of all the data generated globally is in the health care sector.

On one level, this is good news. Data is incredibly useful, and when it comes to addressing a person’s health needs, the more information the professionals have, the better informed they are.

On another level, the huge volumes of data in the health system — growing at around 63% each year — can be a headache for technologists serving the sector, health professionals, and patients.   

The big problem, says Farhoud Salimi, is one of integration.

“The issue is about how to bring those records together to deliver insights, and the challenge is amplified by the fact that there is a huge volume of data but not many national or global standards,” says Salimi, the chief technology officer for Telstra Health in Australia.

“That makes it hard to harmonize the data and bring patient records together, particularly when they are still largely desktop-based and configured differently,” he adds.

“It means that when you try and find a piece of information about a patient, and make sure that it’s the correct piece of information, then getting all that harmonized and mapped and back to the clinician or patient in a heavily regulated and critical environment is very difficult.”

Towards interoperability

The good news is that the sector is moving, and the goal is one of interoperability.

Within Australia, there is a National Interoperability Health Plan that is now 75% complete. But, as in other jurisdictions, healthcare data still remains siloed across clinical, operational, and care settings.

Telstra Health has been a part of this process of interoperability as Australia’s largest provider of digital health solutions.

The company acts as the technology engine behind the healthcare sector, with a mission of building secure and connected software and data systems that connect key stakeholder groups spanning hospitals, governments, and care providers.

The majority of Telstra Health’s products have been desktop-based and installed locally on PC’s or servers in discrete environments, but with its new product Corus, the company is taking its next-generation solution into the cloud.

Salimi describes Corus as a platform and a “digital ecosystem” based around the patient.

“As a patient, when you move from one provider to another, your data doesn’t flow with you; it doesn’t move from one practice to another or from primary health to allied or to the hospital,” he says.

“What we are seeking to do is follow the patient so the data flows with them as they engage with the sector.”

Corus, which was created in a partnership with Smile Digital Health, Salesforce, and Snowflake, connects directly with the Australian Government’s My Health Record system – which has over 24 million patient records - enabling clinical teams and care providers to integrate and share data across care environments.

One of the enablers has been the development of the FHIR standard – an acronym for Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources – which is a technical framework to allow disparate healthcare systems to securely exchange, access, and interpret electronic health records.

FHIR was developed by the global healthcare standards organisation HL7 International and was implemented as part of the Affordable Care Act in the U.S., also known as ‘Obamacare,’ before its adoption by other jurisdictions such as Australia.

With Corus, the FHIR standard drives patient centricity, standardizes data through APIs, and provides a data spine that stores and organizes health information into modular resources in categories spanning medical conditions and patient demographics.

The Care Navigation module is among the first AI-enabled, omni-channel contact centres, and is designed to deliver coordination by multiple agencies.

New modules in primary and community care and allied health will be rolled out from mid 2027.

Productivity boost

“The solution brings all of a patient’s records together and creates a longitudinal record, with population health analytics combined, and that creates an insights and care ecosystem,” says Salimi.

“It is a fully integrated ecosystem that gives you that single patient record within our footprint, and that is the main differentiator. You're not buying three different products that aren't integrated, that don't understand how they talk to each other, that don't understand the concept of a single patient,” he continues.

“This solution, the way it's architected, it understands the single patient, it stratifies the patient record, and it creates that single view that enables better data and insights, both from a patient perspective, but also from a clinician perspective.”

In a country with a significant shortage of healthcare workers and clinicians, the platform can make a significant contribution to productivity.

“If I'm a GP, I'm probably interacting with five or six different systems and solutions, and in some cases, there are still faxes being sent and documents printed,” says Salimi.

“The benefit of working in our system is that you will have the information at your fingertips within that ecosystem fully integrated for use.”

“That saves the amount of time you need to access the information and gives you more time with the patients rather than tapping away at the keyboard,” he concludes.

Image credit: iStockphoto/Nadezhda Fedrunova