What is Health Data? An Introduction for Anyone

The pulse, represents the natural, and un-natural, changes a body experiences  – higher blood pressure, lower blood pressure; more weight, less weight; happier, sadder; steadier, shakier, pain, fear, anxiety, relief, feeling respected or alone – on and on. Some pulses are felt, seen, heard, sensed, smelled, timed, and some are electronic (lab tests, x-rays, apps etc.).  The most common form of pulse data is the list, a continual pulse over time: medications taken or not taken, minutes or hours of activity, wounds cared for, mood changes… The list can be in your memory, on scraps of paper, in a spreadsheet, on an app, in an Electronic or Personal Health Record, anywhere. People in your team, including you, take different pulses. Most different is that yours are often felt from the inside out, while everyone else’s is from the outside in. This inside/out business is really important. You are the only one who takes pulses from the inside. You are the only one who experiences what you experience. However, it’s all data about the same thing – you.

The story is the characters (the health team) and the journey. So identifying information about you and the team (name, address, phone number, etc.), appointments scheduled and kept, goals made and achieved – or not, side trips, passing characters, stuff that happened. Stuff like events, getting better, getting worse, illnesses, medications, surgeries, instructions. It’s a tale of events in your journey to be shared between you and health team members. Another post we’ll talk about that sharing business and who gets to see the data.

The review includes observation and interpretation. Data by itself is ink on paper, or bytes in the ether – no value. It doesn’t begin to have value until somebody says so what? What does it mean to me, to experts, to the rest of the team? Is it good or bad, does it change in waves that seem reasonable or change rapidly? Does it tell about the past, can it predict the future, does it motivate anyone to do anything?

Health data about groups of people is called population health. More about population health later.

Final, cost. Cost can be expense, money exchanged, people and companies pay and get paid.  But it’s also personal and community well-being and value or suffering, damage, and loss. Cost is pretty complicated.  I’m not ready to write about cost, just yet. But I will.

So this has been my longest post yet. Feels good to be back after the short break. Stay in touch. It warms me.