In 2011 the National Quality Strategy was released, outlining the strategy for the triple aim of “Better Care, Healthier Communities and Affordable Care.” Prior to the release of the NQS, the U.S. did not have a formal strategy for quality and access to care in the United States.

While on any given day providers, hospitals and vendors are focused on achieving Meaningful Use (MU) for the EHR incentive program, MU in itself is not the goal. The real goal and guiding star is the National Quality Strategy and achieving the triple aim.

In addition, as a nation we are now focusing on Accountable Care and Population Health Management, which is much broader in focus than MU but very important to achieving the triple aim. I believe we need an integrated approach to support collaboration, learning and innovation to generate new knowledge and insights into new models of care. Clinical business intelligence and data analytics have been called the next evolution in informatics and healthcare IT to support new models of care delivery.

A recent IOM report, “Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America” (September 2012) defines the foundational elements of a learning system for health care that will allow the industry to make strides in the quality of care. The report states that advances in computing power, connectivity, team-based care, and systems engineering techniques are promoting a culture and systems of continuous learning and improvement. While the IOM report had many findings and recommendations, it emphasized the need for a “digital infrastructure to improve the capacity to capture clinical, delivery process and financial data for better care, system improvement and creating new knowledge.”

I agree there is a critical need for a platform and infrastructure that is open, flexible, and integrated to allow for data analytics, collaboration, learning and innovation to address the healthcare challenges of today and tomorrow. The industry needs an open and flexible platform that allows for integration with providers and vendor applications and the ability to re-purpose data for continuous learning and improvement across all facets of healthcare. These are the building blocks for achieving integrated, accountable care.

I believe that having the infrastructure and tools that support analytics, surveillance, and care management are critical to the achievement of the National Quality strategy—for clinicians and administrators to manage patient care more effectively, and for patients to more actively engage in their own care and self-management. The future of our healthcare lies in moving beyond the digitization, exchange and reporting of data to the meaningful analysis, collaboration and sharing of data. What do you think?