Industry leaders say better synthesis and management of information — better data models — is key to improving patient care and reducing costs.

IBM, Siemens Medical Solutions and the Mayo Clinic are among the technology companies and healthcare providers that are advocates for data as a force for change.

Last August, IBM and the Mayo Clinic announced they would move into the second phase of a technology partnership aimed at using a database of patient records to foster individualized patient treatment.

IBM and Mayo have spent the past two years developing and testing a methodology for mining the data from the medical records of 4.4 million patients treated at Mayo. The idea is to analyze the information, look for similarities from one patient and another, and identify patterns.

The goal: To provide the right treatment to the right patient at the right time.

The IBM/Mayo project illustrates the increasingly critical role data is playing in changing healthcare.

With new technology emerging every day, there's an "enormous drive to really improve the way healthcare is delivered," said Christopher Yoo, PhD, IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences.

Healthcare is not just about providing care, it's also an information business, " he said. "We see this as a very data-driven type of business."

Data is derived from many different sources – vital signs and molecular information, among them.

"All the data has to live somewhere, and it has to be managed properly," Yoo said. Yoo is convinced that, properly integrated, data can bring about a better understanding about how to better treat patients, and it can also drive more cost out of the system.

Jon Zimmerman, vice president, Soarian Health Connections, Siemens Medical Solutions, and an IBM partner, agrees. Yoo and Zimmerman spoke about information-based medicine recently on a panel at TETHIC 2004, The Emerging Technologies and Healthcare Innovations Congress in Washington D.C.

"Chronic disease is driving a lot of expense in our industry," Zimmerman said. Information technology is key to better managing chronic disease and, in turn, reducing cost, he added.

Zimmerman suggested that medical technology and information technology have to come together. "Right now it's all manual; it's not connected," he said.

Don Fisher, president and chief executive officer of the American Medical Group Association, an advocacy organization for multi-specialty physician groups, says most medical practices today use IT only to manage the business.

"We need to move beyond that," he said.

What is needed, he added, is a different mindset, one that would help break down the imaginary red line that divides healthcare and research. Fisher also advocates for more collaboration among stakeholders and convenient, comprehensive clinical trial management systems.