542 - Improving Healthcare Systems: Using Structured Data to Enhance Quality and Safety

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, Peter Birch speaks with Dr Dennis Rausch, Chief Medical Officer at Dedalus, and Viti Handyside, ANZ Country Product Manager for ORBIS at Dedalus, about the importance and benefits of structured data in Health IT. The episode explores the challenges and opportunities associated with embedding structured data in electronic medical records (EMRs), the impact on clinicians’ daily workflows, and the broader implications for patient outcomes, operational efficiency, and health system innovation. They cover both local and global perspectives, examining how structured data enables better care, supports research, and sets the foundation for advances such as artificial intelligence in healthcare.Key Takeaways:🏥 Structured data in healthcare is critical for accurate data analytics, decision support, interoperability, and operational efficiency.📝 Free-text notes, while common in clinical workflows, can create ambiguity, increase cognitive load, and make it difficult for machines to interpret and leverage health data.🔗 Embedding structured data entry into clinicians’ natural workflows is key to adoption, reducing manual data entry burden, and improving data quality.🤖 New technologies, including ambient AI, natural language processing, and smart EMR interfaces, are enabling more seamless capture and utilisation of both structured and unstructured clinical information.🔍 Structured data enhances research capabilities, supports the development of digital twins, reduces errors, facilitates compliance, and helps avoid costly duplicate testing and administrative inefficiencies.🌍 There is still a journey required for widespread adoption in regions like Australia, but growing interest and investment in digital health is driving progress.💊 Future healthcare ecosystems will rely even more on structured data to power clinical decision support, population health analytics, and personalised medicine.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus