Developing these standards supports:
- care delivery
- statistical analysis
- research
- reimbursement of health and care providers.
When data is collected using effective data standards, every subsequent step in the lifecycle (assembly, analysis and interpretation, distribution and change) is made easier for each system and organisation involved. This helps improve patient outcomes with better quality data for primary and secondary uses.
Effective data standards benefit the health and care system in various ways:
- vital information can be shared consistently within and across health and care settings to support delivery of high quality care
- comprehensive and high quality information supports clinical decision making - it can support more extensive clinical audit and research to enhance the evidence base
- reducing the risk of misinterpretation of records in different care settings leads to improved patient safety and care.
Interoperability is the ability for products or systems to function with other products or systems in an unrestricted way. A lack of interoperability limits the exchange of information, has a negative effect on the care of patients and is inefficient for system users. Good data standards enable systems to be designed to interoperate with other products or systems.
The team also provides the development, maintenance and support of NHS Information Standards, listing them within the online Data Dictionary.
Our Diagnostics Data Service team are working to improve the information quality of diagnostics service outputs to improve the provision of healthcare in the NHS.
Diagnostics services include:
- pathology
- endoscopy
- imaging
- physiological measures
- genomics.