Data science holds great promise for the healthcare industry, but potential applications can only work if health care data is collected in digitized form.

One of the first steps toward health care innovation is the transition to Electronic Health Records (EHRs), a process that is already being implemented in offices and hospitals across the United States.

The digital version of traditional paper charts in medical practices: unique to individual providers.

The digitized comprehensive patient history from all the clinicians involved in a patient’s care, regardless of practice or specialty.

Measures data over time.

“Rather than using a ‘gut-level’ approach in an uncertain situation, physicians can instead use a decision-making tool that ‘learns’ from patient histories to identify health status and probable outcomes.”

-Ilias Tagkopoulos, Assistant Professor at UC Davis

Office-based physician use of any type of EHR system

2001  (18%)

2009  (48%)

2011  (54%)

2013  (78%)

U.S. physician offices using EHR software

2013  (50.3%)

2014  ( 61%)

Hospital owned (70.7%)

Non-Hospital owned (58.8%)

Health system owned (71.4%)

Non-health system owned (59%)

Dialysis (80.6%)

Internal Medicine/ Pediatrics (75.8%)

Nephrology (70.5%)

Pathology (69.4%)

Radiology (69.2%)

Addiction Medicine (44%)

Bariatrician (40.6%)

Psychiatric (39.7%)

Holistic Medicine (37.2%)

Preventative Medicine (35.9%)

Utah (71.6%)

South Dakota (71.2%)

Wyoming (71%)

Iowa (70.8%)

North Dakota (69.2%)

New York (54.6%)

Louisiana (54.1%)

District of Columbia (53.6%)

New Jersey (53%)

Rhode Island (52.1%)

Electronic Health Records may reduce outpatient care costs by 3%

In a 2013 study from Kaiser Permanente, EHR use for patients with diabetes mellitus led to:

29 fewer department visits per 1,000 patients annually.

13 fewer hospitalizations per 1,000 patients annually.

In 2013, EHRs reduced the cost of Canadian care redundancies (duplicates tests and adverse drug reactions) by $560,000

By 2019, the majority of physicians will have adopted a basic EHR system

76% primary care physicians in small practices

90% primary care physicians in larger practices

78% Specialty care physicians

“In the next 10 years, data science and software will do more for medicine than all of the biological sciences together.”

-Vinod Khosla, Venture capitalist

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