• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

33 Charts

  • About
    • What is 33 Charts?
    • Bryan Vartabedian MD
  • Blog
  • 33mail
  • Foci
    • Social/Public Media
    • Physicians
    • Patients
    • Hospitals
    • Information
    • Process/Flow
    • Technology
    • Digital culture
    • Future Medicine
  • The Public Physician
Information, Patients

Health Data Without Wisdom is a Spreadsheet

September 5, 2018 By Bryan Vartabedian · Reading Time: < 1 minutes

Health dataIncreasingly EHR systems like Epic are automatically releasing test results to patients. This release of health data should be a good thing.

But when a machine delivers data alone we fail to help patients achieve understanding of what it means. Personal health data without knowledge and wisdom is just a spreadsheet.

We have to figure out how to help patients understand data in the context of their individual story. Human doctors can translate and explain. But the availability and wisdom of health professionals can’t scale to match the growing sea of diagnostic data.

Smart machines might be there soon enough. But only if patients and health professionals are involved in their design and creation. We have to train machines to meet the real needs of patients.

Patient access to health data is a start. Supporting patients around their information in a way that empowers should be our endpoint.

Image modified from the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Related Articles

  • Big Doctor Data
  • Waiting for Health
  • We're All Patients

Tagged With: Information

Related Articles

  • Big Doctor Data
  • Waiting for Health
  • We're All Patients

Primary Sidebar

Bryan Vartabedian, MD

Bryan Vartabedian, MD
Bryan Vartabedian is the Chief Pediatrics Officer at Texas Children’s Hospital North Austin and one of health care’s influential
voices on technology & medicine.
Learn More

Popular Articles

  • The Fate of Fired Cleveland Clinic Resident Lara Kollab
  • Cures Act Final Rule – How It Will Change Medicine
  • 12 Things About Doximity You Probably Didn’t Know
  • Should Physicians Give Their Cell Phone Number to Patients?
  • Doximity Dialer Video – Telemedicine’s Latest Power Player

Sign up for 33mail newsletter

Featured Articles

Yes, Doctor

Doctors and social media: Damned if you engage, damned if you don’t

Doctors and the Endemic Culture of Permission

Health Care and the Visibility-Value Continuum

The Case for New Physician Literacies in the Digital Age

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Footer

What is 33 Charts?

With a mashup of curated and original content that crosses the spaces of digital health, media, communication, technology, patient experience, digital culture, and the humanities, 33 charts offers unique insight and analysis on the changing face of medicine.

Founded in 2009 as a center of community and thought leadership for the issues doctors face in a digital world, 33 charts was included in the National Library of Medicine permanent web archive in 2014.
Learn More

Foci

  • Digital culture
  • Digital Health
  • EHR/Health IT
  • Future Medicine
  • Hospitals
  • Information
  • Patients
  • Physicians
  • Process/Flow
  • Quality
  • Social/Public Media
  • Technology

Copyright © 2023 · 33 Charts · Privacy Policy