by Christophe Maes
With the increasing use of digital health records and the rise of healthcare data sharing, a well-managed hospital data management plan is becoming increasingly crucial for the secondary use of health data.
Some general benefits of secondary use of health data are:
- secondary use of health data can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of treatments, medicines, and other healthcare practices. By analyzing large amounts of data, doctors and researchers can identify trends and correlations that can help them make better decisions about how to treat patients. This can lead to improved outcomes for patients and more efficient use of healthcare resources.
- secondary use of health data can improve public health. By aggregating data from large numbers of people, researchers can identify public health issues and identify ways to address them.
- secondary use of health data can help to improve medical research. By analyzing large amounts of data, researchers can identify potential correlations between treatments, medicines, and health outcomes. This can help to inform future research and potentially lead to new treatments, drugs for diseases and illnesses.
- secondary use of health data can help to reduce the cost of healthcare. By analyzing data, C-management and healthcare providers of the hospital can identify areas where healthcare processes can be streamlined and healthcare costs can be reduced without compromising patient outcomes. This can help to reduce overall healthcare costs and resource.
- secondary use of health data can increase the hospital’s participation in clinical trials. This can help increase the number of patients participating in clinical trials and help to generate a higher return on investment (ROI).

A well-managed hospital data management plan is critical for the secondary use of health data, as it ensures the security and privacy of the data, as well as its accuracy and integrity. A high quality data management plan should include key factors that ensure the effective and secure use of healthcare data.
These include:
1. Data Governance: Data governance should be in place to ensure that data management policies and procedures are implemented, as well as to monitor compliance with the regulations and standards related to healthcare data.
2. Data Security: It is essential that security measures are in place to protect the data from unauthorized access, modification, and misuse. These measures should include the implementation of encryption, access control, and authentication.
3. Data Quality: Data quality is an important factor in ensuring that the data is accurate and consistent. Quality control measures should be implemented to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the data.
4. Data Accessibility: Data should be made accessible in order to ensure that the data can be used for its intended purpose.
These are just a few of the key factors that should be included in a high quality data management plan. By ensuring that these factors are in place, hospitals can ensure that the data is used securely, accurately, and efficiently.
A well-managed hospital data management plan is essential for the secondary use of health data, and the key factors outlined above are essential for the successful implementation of such a plan.
If you are interested how to set up a high-quality data management plan and how to visualise this in a dashboard, be sure you do not miss our future blogs on data management plans or contact us by sending an email to christophe.maes@i-hd.eu.

About Christophe Maes
Business Development and Audit Manager, i~HD
Christophe has been working in hospital management boards as a project – quality & safety – and innovations manager for over 20 years, gaining an in-depth expertise in healthcare processes and data quality acquisition. His major interest in innovation and analytic & strategic topics will be extremely valuable to help develop and implement new i~HD business strategies and services.