What is HER

The relatively recent and more pervasive retention of electronic healthcare data has provided new opportunities for the advancement of analytics and business intelligence tools within healthcare. The tasks comprising the delivery process for healthcare provide numerous points for data capture, and associated analyses to improve efficiencies and quality of care. In general, healthcare data is extracted from transaction-based systems designed for billing, scheduling, and workflow. However, data characterizing medical events can be further leveraged to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of patients. In fact, healthcare information technology (HIT) to improve patient diagnosis and treatment is remarkably neglected. This chapter outlines the process flow for healthcare delivery, describes the data extracted during this process flow, details the enablers and inhibitors of HIT and accompanying analytics, presents concerns about data integrity and quality, and provides some methods for data cleansing and staging.