Healthcare’s digital transformation has generated an unprecedented volume of information: 65 zettabytes and counting. Yet despite this abundance of data, most health systems are struggling to translate it into real value. In fact, 97% of existing health data goes unused. The issue is not a lack of data, but the absence of a foundation that makes data trustworthy, connected and ready to act upon.
Solving these long-standing challenges is what will allow data to shift from a liability into one of healthcare’s most valuable strategic assets.
Fragmented, incomplete data obscures the full picture
The majority of health data— around 80%—is unstructured and scattered across electronic health records, claims platforms, lab systems, registries and other community sources. Each system captures only a fragment of the patient story, and few are designed to share that information effectively across care settings or organizational boundaries. As a result, clinicians, administrators and analysts are forced to work with partial views of reality. This fragmentation leads to duplicated tests, inefficient workflows, manual reconciliation, preventable errors and missed opportunities to intervene earlier or coordinate care more effectively.
Healthcare doesn’t have to operate this way. The path forward begins by integrating clinical, financial, operational and social data into a single, longitudinal view that reflects the full patient journey. This unified record must be dynamic, continuously updated, standards-based and capable of surfacing data when and where it is needed.
This connected data must be paired with the tools and technology that can surface trends, deliver relevant insights and support action where care decisions actually happen. This fully connected view will enable care teams to make decisions based on the whole story, rather than a small part of it.
Data governance, trust and security aren’t optional
Bringing data together is necessary but it is not sufficient. For data to be useful at scale, it must be trustworthy, secure and transparent. As the volume of data continues to grow, so too do the risks associated with misuse, poor quality and bad actors. It’s no surprise that more than half of healthcare organizations anticipate increasing cybersecurity spending in 2025 with a focus on stronger tools, controls and policies.
At the same time, artificial intelligence is becoming a core part of healthcare operations. About 88% of CIOs report that their health systems allow AI in some form, yet governance has not kept pace. Around three-quarters of CIOs are concerned about data privacy with AI, yet less than half have implemented an approval process for its use.
Without strong governance over who can access what data and precise audit trails, healthcare organizations can’t be confident in the quality or security of their data. Poor governance raises the risk of preventable breaches, but also erodes confidence in analytics, AI models and the decisions that come with them.
The solution is to embed governance directly into every layer of the data foundation. This includes role-based access, detailed audit trails, lineage tracking, anomaly detection and transparency in how data is being transformed. Trust grows when data is secure, traceable end-to-end and ready for responsible use across analytics reporting and AI.
Releasing the financial and operational pressure valve with the right tools
Healthcare organizations face rising costs, tighter margins and growing pressure to deliver more value with fewer resources. In an environment where organizations need to do more with less, leaving data underutilized is no longer an option. When properly managed, monitored and tracked, data can have a multiplier effect across use cases across the healthcare ecosystem.
Manual processes tied to documentation, coding, billing and reconciliation cost the healthcare industry a staggering $15 to $20 billion per year. Research shows that automating these workflows and improving the accuracy and completeness of the underlying data can significantly reduce denials, accelerate revenue cycle and improve financial performance. If ever there was a reason—or 20 billion reasons—to address how we access and connect data together, this is it.
Modern data platforms now enable healthcare organizations to streamline how information is collected, standardized and reused across multiple use cases. Clean, validated data can be leveraged simultaneously for care coordination, quality reporting, financial optimization research and regulatory compliance.
By integrating these capabilities into existing clinical systems, organizations can modernize incrementally while protecting what already works. The result is a more resilient, efficient enterprise that is able to adapt as reimbursement models, regulations and care delivery continue to evolve.
Limited access to talent and innovation is causing a bottleneck
Healthcare’s data challenges are also human challenges. Access to skilled clinicians, technologists and data scientists has never been easy. Now more than ever, talent is in short supply, especially for healthcare organizations outside major research centers. In fact, the World Health Organization has predicted a total healthcare talent shortfall of 10 million workers worldwide within the next five years.
Innovation suffers when teams cannot easily access high-quality data to test ideas, build solutions and measure impact. Talented professionals are less likely to stay in environments where progress is slowed by fragmented systems and manual workarounds.
To solve this, healthcare organizations must democratize access to trusted data. This includes providing self-service analytics, standardized data products and the ability to generate clean or synthetic data sets for research and innovation. When teams are empowered to explore data safely and efficiently, creativity accelerates and so does the potential for sustained progress.
Strengthening data as healthcare’s most valuable asset
Transforming healthcare data into a true strategic asset is not about chasing the latest technology trends. It is about rethinking the foundation of how data is integrated, governed, accessed and activated. By focusing on unified data, embedded governance, actionable insights, operational efficiency and broad but responsible access, healthcare organizations can finally overcome the barriers that have limited data’s potential for many decades. In doing so, data becomes more than a byproduct of care; it becomes the engine that drives better outcomes, stronger organizations and a more sustainable healthcare system for the future. Data has the potential to fundamentally improve quality, lower cost and open more access to care, but only if that data is properly managed, monitored and made available when and where it is needed.
About Kevin Ritter
Kevin Ritter is the Executive Vice President of CareInMotion at Altera Digital Health, As an experienced digital health leader with more than 20 years of experience spanning electronic health records, population health management, consumer health and data analytics throughout the healthcare industry, Kevin leads the CareInMotion team. Utilizing technology in the healthcare setting and in business development opportunities, Kevin’s expertise is in operationalizing technology and services for large, complex, Integrated Healthcare Delivery Systems. He has earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Lawrence University and a Master of Business Administration from Babson College. He is married with three children and enjoys running, golfing and chasing his kids around the ski mountain.
