February's Insights for Data Leaders
Chief Data Officer Exchange
Invitation-only events for senior data leaders to meet and discuss the biggest challenges and solutions in the sector.
Welcome to the February edition of the CDO Newsletter!
Ahead of next week’s CDO Healthcare Exchange, our main feature this month is an exclusive interview with Jon Case , VP of Product Management at healthcare master data management provider Verato . We discuss bridging the data divide between healthcare payers and providers to achieve data interoperability in healthcare.
We’re also taking an in-depth look at two of the biggest data news stories of the past month – the emergence of DeepSeek AI and the publication of the UK’s AI Opportunities Action Plan. And don’t forget to read to the end for our monthly book recommendation!?
Healthcare Interoperability: Navigating the Path from Data Fragmentation to Integration?
The concept of healthcare interoperability is not new. Since the Health and Information Technology for Economic and Health (HITECH) Act, which incentivised healthcare providers to adopt electronic health records (EHRs), was passed in 2009, various different regulations have been introduced attempting to standardise and simplify the transfer and sharing of data from electronic health records.
Enhanced interoperability has the potential to significantly reduce healthcare costs, with estimates suggesting savings of up to $30 billion. These savings stem from cutting administrative expenses associated with manually locating and aggregating data into a usable format, as well as minimising errors that lead to redundant or incorrect tests, procedures, and prescriptions. Moreover, facilitating the seamless transfer of patients' healthcare data can aid in care management and prior authorisation decisions, leading to faster treatment and improved patient outcomes. This also helps to alleviate the often-strained payer-provider relationship by fostering better collaboration and communication.
Verato, a valued partner of the CDO Healthcare Exchange, is a leading provider of master data management solutions designed to help healthcare organisations resolve, manage, and enrich healthcare identities for individuals and organisations. Ahead of next week’s CDO Healthcare Exchange, we had the privilege of speaking with Jon Case, Verato’s Vice President of Product Management, to explore technologies and regulations driving improved collaboration and data sharing between payers and providers, and future prospects for simpler healthcare interoperability.?
How would you define interoperability in a healthcare context?
For me, interoperability means making sure that any people, organisations or software programs can safely and accurately exchange information to provide better care and experiences for patients in our healthcare system.
I think most people see interoperability as the transfer of data across organisations: “If I’m a healthcare provider and I’m working with a healthcare payer, how do we exchange information?” But that idea of safely and accurately exchanging information can be happening across an entire country, within an organisation, or within a single department in an organisation.
Why is healthcare interoperability so critical for payers and providers?
Part of the reason is that there are regulations mandating that payers and providers do a better job of interoperability. However, I think what’s just as important – or maybe even more important – is that consumers today just expect it. People nowadays expect a better consumer experience, particularly in healthcare which I think lags behind in terms of its reputation for providing a good experience. Consumers aren’t saying: “I want payers and providers to get better at interoperability.” They’re saying: “I want you to get better at giving me a good experience.” But that’s only going to happen if they get better at interoperability.
Another big benefit is that organisations will be able to leverage the same underlying technology for interoperability for so many other good things. If organisations have to make sure they are doing a good job of surfacing a certain patient’s medical information for interoperability purposes, they can use that same thing for better patient care in the hospital, better patient outreach and marketing, financial planning, predictive modelling, feeding into AI models, and so many things like that.
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What do you think are the biggest challenges that healthcare organisations face in achieving interoperability?
There are definitely some challenges around ensuring that the transfer of information is both safe and accurate. Part of the challenge around accuracy is that if you are going to share information, it needs to be complete information. If a healthcare payer is requesting information about a patient from a healthcare provider and they are getting back a partial picture of the patient’s history, then that’s really not meeting the accuracy requirement. What’s more, if a payer is given incomplete information, they might not make the right financial or care decision. Part of the reason that providing complete information is such a challenge is that a lot of organisations – whether they are payers or providers – don’t even have their own house in order when it comes to being able to get that complete picture, never mind interoperability.
Another challenge that goes hand in hand with that is consistency. For example, if a payer who is responsible for a patient’s care financially is asking for information about that patient from a provider they have visited, that exchange depends on both organisations consistently identifying the same person with a high degree of confidence. So for example, what technologies and standards does the provider organisation use to decide whether they have the right Jon Case in their data set? And is that consistent with what the payer uses? If the payer thinks the provider may have gotten the wrong person, it’s hard for that trust to happen.
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How do you think technology can help address challenges around interoperability in healthcare?
I think the best way for organisations to tackle the challenge of completeness of information is to use a technology like master data management. That kind of technology is key to bringing together a complete and accurate picture of a person in the health system, whether that is to satisfy interoperability requests or other things.
To achieve consistency, there are certainly technology tools to help address that challenge, but I think there are other solutions beyond technology. For example, maybe technology vendors need to agree to participate in an objective assessment of their patient identification or patient searching technology. They could create a rating or certification to help build trust that both sides are surfacing the same patient. Another idea could be that instead of the payer and provider each having their own approach, they agree on some sort of intermediate technology – a bit like using an escrow service when buying a house.
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What factors do you think will drive interoperability forward in the future?
Regulations have always been a big part of driving interoperability forward because without them, there’s never an impetus for enough people to act. I don’t necessarily see new regulations coming in the next five to ten years, but I think we will see more clarification on how we’re going to implement existing regulations like the 21st Century Cures Act, TEFCA, and the CMS interoperability measurement.
On the technology side, I think consumer-controlled identity verification could play a big role five to ten years down the road. This could take the form of things like digital identity wallets or even distributed digital identity tokens that use blockchain. I know blockchain has lost some popularity recently, but it does have the potential to shift identity verification and trust into the hands of the consumer in an immutable way.
I’m less certain about AI. I believe AI will have all sorts of transformative impacts in healthcare and beyond, but I don’t think those impacts will necessarily be in interoperability. I think the impacts of AI will come in clinical care plans, research, and overall operational efficiencies. There are probably lots of amazing things that will be done with AI, but specific to interoperability, I’m not so sure.
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Forming stronger payer-provider relationships through better data interoperability will be a key theme at this year’s CDO Healthcare Exchange. Key sessions on this topic include:
For more information, visit the website here.
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February’s News Update for Data Leaders
Rapid Rise of China’s DeepSeek AI Sparks Concern Among US Tech Companies
This month has seen the rapid and unexpected rise of the Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek. Overtaking ChatGPT to become the most downloaded app on the US App Store, DeepSeek has generated shockwaves among the predominantly US-dominated AI tech community.?
With DeepSeek claiming to have developed its R1 model in less than two months and with a comparatively tiny budget of around $6 million, US President Donald Trump has said that the sudden success of DeepSeek should be a “wake-up call” for American tech companies. Indeed, Reuters reports that US technology stocks fell by roughly $1 trillion after the launch of DeepSeek’s free AI assistant.????
US tech companies have reacted defensively to the arrival of DeepSeek, with Meta reportedly creating several “war rooms” to analyse DeepSeek’s training methods, and ChatGPT this week launching its new “deep research” agent that can synthesise hundreds of online sources and independently complete research tasks in response to prompts.?
DeepSeek has also sparked concern among governments and public institutions due to uncertainty around its data and privacy policies. As such, Australia has banned the use of DeepSeek on government devices, and the US Navy has warned its members to avoid using DeepSeek in any capacity. Italy has even removed DeepSeek from its app stores entirely after the Chinese tech company provided “totally insufficient” information to the Italian data protection authority’s questions around what personal data is collected, for what purposes, and whether it is stored in China.
With the race between America and China being described by some as an “AI War,” Donald Trump will be hoping that the recently announced $500 billion Stargate partnership involving OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank will be enough to get American AI back on top.
Boosting Infrastructure and Reforming Regulation Key Targets in UK’s AI Opportunities Action Plan
The UK government last month unveiled its new plan for using AI to boost economic growth. Based on 50 recommendations made by tech entrepreneur Matt Clifford, expanding the UK’s infrastructure for AI and adopting a pro-innovation approach to regulation are key areas of focus.
Key measures proposed by the plan include:
While many countries including the US share the UK’s ambition to increase their domestic AI infrastructure, legal analysts have suggested that the UK’s AI Opportunities Action Plan positions itself at a midway point between the EU’s overarching EU AI Act framework, and the US’ more federated approach to regulation.
Book recommendation of the month: Data Ethics: Practical Strategies for Implementing Ethical Information Management and Governance by Katherine O'Keefe and Daragh O Brien
With new technologies like ad-tech able to collect more and more detailed personal data, the question of data ethics has come to the fore. O’Keefe’s and O Brien’s Data Ethics provides a practical framework for the implementation of ethical principles into information management systems. With guidance on sustainability and environmental management, Data Ethics is a valuable resource that will help readers to navigate the complex and fast-evolving world of data.?
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Have a story to tell? If you’re interested in contributing to a future newsletter, please contact editor Emma Pappenheim at [email protected]
View the 2025 CDO Exchange Calendar
CDO Healthcare Exchange – 11-12 February 2025 | Le Méridien Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
CDO UK Exchange – 19-20 March 2025 | Hilton Syon Park, London, UK
CDO Europe Exchange – 17-18 June 2025 | Hilton Munich City, Germany
CDO Retail Exchange – 9-10 July 2025 | Hilton Syon Park, London, UK
CDO BFSI USA Exchange – 16-17 September 2025 | Kimpton Hotel Monaco Philadelphia, PA, USA
CDO Manufacturing & Logistics Exchange – 3-4 November 2025 | Leonardo Royal, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
CDO BFSI Exchange – 11-12 November 2025 | Hilton Syon Park, London, UK
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