Jan 1, 2024 • By Cindy Daugherty & Heidi Hays

Nothing may be more frustrating than believing that you have an issue or even a new opportunity but you are unable to prove it due to lack of quality information. This affects the ability to understand what happened in the past, act in the present and make good decisions in the future.

Data governance is the answer to this problem. Data governance can be defined as a framework of best practices or standards used by organizations to define how data is gathered, defined, stored and managed. In addition, it should include policies on data protection and compliance such as HIPAA.

One objective of good data governance is to drive consistency and accessibility across the organization which results in a common understanding of how the data is used, a common terminology, and improved level of accuracy throughout the organization.

You can think of it as a version of the truth which provides insights into your organization.

Why is Data Governance Important in Medical Education?

As in other industries, data governance is crucial to Medical Education in obtaining valuable insights based upon data you trust and the bigger picture. Better decisions can be made that affect learners, faculty and educational programs.

Informed Organizations

The practice of automating methods of data capture and creating meaningful outcomes based on metrics is key to an informed organization. Better short and long term decisions can be made when the data is clean. Identifying trends can lead to lasting improvements.

Fast and Efficient Decision Making

It is all about getting the data when you need it and providing the ability to make fact based decisions. As an example, it is better to know how well a learner is doing now in order to create the best long term plan for the learner’s education. Getting data late can cost both the learner and the organization valuable time.

Transparency and Accountability

A renewed focus on the data quality and widespread practices creates a level of transparency and accountability. End-users have good data to do their jobs. Programs and leadership learn to trust the data avoiding potential unforeseen obstacles; such as achieving or maintaining accreditation.

Cost Reduction

The amount of savings in terms of time by having accessible data and the ability to get data to the right users at the right time.

How can I tell if I need Data Governance?

There are multiple ways to identify if data governance is an issue within your organization. One of the most straightforward indications is noting missing information in your reports or analytics results. This is a good indicator that programs may not enter data using the same format.

The most common examples would include empty fields of data, or data entered inconsistently in varied formats, i.e. OH vs. O.H. vs. Oh. Some organizations may use a custom field to track information, such as licenses or another field that is designated for license types. When the data is captured in different formats it will be impossible to obtain an aggregate of information or provide comparative outcomes.

What are Best Practices that I can use for implementing Data Governance?

Use industry proven tools to identify gaps and inaccuracies. Analytics can provide the means to discover data that needs to be cleansed through discovery, interpretation and benchmarking. Key insights are reported via dashboards and custom alerts that tell a valuable story. When you only get a partial story or one that doesn’t make sense there is a good chance it is related to the data behind it.

Once data governance is implemented, analytics will help take your organization from one that reports results in hindsight to one that looks ahead and identifies improvements.

Create Clear Policies and Practices

These policies cover more than what and how data is accepted. They should include security and privacy policies for managing confidential and personal information. Policies should be institution wide but also created and followed at the departmental level.

Empower Your Organization

Include all levels of your organization in creating the practices and setting rules. They know the data best and will have to adjust to the changes. This will create buy-in. Get support at all levels of the organization, especially at the top to help enforce the importance of the new practices.

Document Practices

Document mandatory organization wide practices for any function that requires the collection and management of data, including standardizing definitions and use as well as identifying when data should be custom.

Cleanse and Manage Your Data Across Your Organization

This will take time but clean data is necessary for trusted decision making.

Ongoing Monitoring and Improvement

Monitor your data on a regular ongoing basis by building dashboards and metrics to watch for inconsistencies and changes. Look for new opportunities to improve data capture and processes. This should be thought of as an evergreen practice in order to receive the full benefits over time.

In the end it comes down to having data that can be used today to understand what happened and why, accurate data to act upon and trusted data which will help to predict and prescribe the direction your organization will be able to take.”Data is as Good as What You Put in It”