Most Australian and New Zealand healthcare organisations struggle to use data analytics to support their business objectives. This is among the findings of The State of Healthcare Analytics & Interoperability Study – Australia & New Zealand.

The new study by InterSystems and tech advisory firm, Ecosystm, surveyed 180 healthcare executives across public and private organisations, large and small hospitals, and city and rural locations.

The study found a lack of trust in data, challenges with data quality and the absence of a holistic digital transformation strategy are roadblocks to organisations using data analytics to meet their top business objectives. These include improving clinical outcomes and optimising costs.

Despite 79% of surveyed executives saying data analytics was either intrinsic to all their business priorities or a top priority, only 44% of respondents fully trust their data, and 51% say data quality is a challenge to successfully implementing analytics.

“Without trust in their data, healthcare organisations are squandering one of their most important assets and impeding their ability to achieve their main business objectives,” said Darren Jones, Country Manager, Australia and New Zealand for InterSystems.

The study found that the top business objectives for many organisations include the conflicting demands to improve clinical outcomes and reduce costs. Complying with government mandates was cited as a top business objective by most (64%) respondents, followed by cost optimisation (46%) and improving clinical outcomes (42%).

Healthcare organisations’ top business objectives align with the outcomes they expect from analytics solutions. These include the identification of patient risk (44%), improved patient outcomes or experience (41%), reduced clinical errors (36%) and reduced costs (34%).

“The study reveals a shift in mindset towards value-based healthcare – leveraging data analytics to improve outcomes at an optimised cost – as a way to resolve conflicting business objectives,” said Jones. “Unfortunately, most healthcare organisations don’t yet have that capability.” 

The study reveals that only 32% of healthcare organisations have a digital transformation strategy that includes interoperability, data governance and analytics. The absence of a holistic data strategy is a significant roadblock for the remaining 68% of organisations in achieving their top business objectives.

“Building trust in data for effective analytics requires a data-driven organisational culture where people and processes are focused on accuracy across the data value chain and consistency across disparate data sources,” said Jones.