Metadata & Master Data Management

Hmmmm...interesting topic, eh? Why bother? What can I do? How much is it going to cost me?

Well folks, I am going to tell you a secret. This is a secret that we, I mean technologists, have hidden from you for long. Much like the wall street "experts" who are now "fixing" the problems they created in the first place and getting paid for it, we are doing the exact same thing. This is an issue that we created (I mean technologists). Now we have cool technologies like metadata repositories and dictionaries that can give you standardized data definitions across the enterprise, but we'll need you to pay us for the "cool technology" we created to solve "your issues"!

Why bother?
Answer is simple. Have you ever had Gatorade? Yellow, Blue, Orange? Well if you have, you get different "flavors" of the same thing. Same thing with business intelligence. If you want to call something a pot, call it a pot. Don't call it pot in one place, a vessel in another and a container in another place. Unfortunately, the reality is just that. A pot is called a pot in one system, a vessel in another and a container in a third. If you tried to print out the value of a "pot" for your CEO to see, you would have to sit there and explain "well, it is the same thing, but it may be called a container on page 2"! You can imagine the reaction. Enter metadata and masterdata management! We take the pots and the containers and the vessels, call it a pot, make sure the attributes of all three are the same, store it in a dictionary and charge you a couple of millions for it! Sound cool? No?

What can I do?
There are things you can do and not break the bank while doing it. Old fashioned discipline and planning, for example. And you, as the healthcare exec, is in luck! Because, if you are like most companies, you have a clean slate to start with, in terms of informatics. So, with a little bit of planning upfront, you can avoid a lot of costs later. Incorporate metadata/master data management into your informatics initiative early on. In other words, don't build a warehouse without it! Just like you put planning and thought into collecting your measures, think of having standard data definitions across the enterprise. Reach out to folks like SNOMED to see what they are doing. Trust me, your upfront costs will be a drop in the bucket if you have to do it as an afterthought. It will also ensure better data quality as the data won't get into your system without rationalizing with your dictionary first.

So when your buddy from the other hospital is worried about his/her metadata, you can simply say, "we have incorporated that into the "front end" of our process", take a long hard look at the fairway, judge the wind speed and let it rip!