About a year ago, I posted a blog on how we create data silos . As I perused that blog, I realized that had omitted a significant way in which we create data silos, local data encoding. That is, we use non-standard data identifiers for our drug concepts, often using codes that are derived from a local charge description master or re-imagined at each health-system; sometimes at each facility! So the identifier assigned to, let's say, an Ibuprofen 200 mg tablet, is not only different at each facility, but may wind up pointing to an entirely different drug at a different organization.
One of the benefits from having worked both as a provider and within industry ...