AMA CEO outlines challenges, opportunities in health data

HONOLULU — In his address at the American Medical Association (AMA) Interim Meeting, AMA CEO James L. Madara, M.D., on Saturday outlined the challenges and opportunities present in health data today and the revolutionary opportunity to improve patient care. Madara’s remarks follow the October launch of the AMA’s Integrated Health Model Initiative™ (IHMI), an initiative working with numerous notable collaborators from the health and technology sectors around a collaborative effort that will unleash a new era of better, more effective patient care. IHMI provides a continuous learning environment and features a digital platform, a physician-led clinical validation process and a common data model to enable semantic interoperability.

Madara acknowledged that the AMA has many immediate projects to address physician needs that are very acute. He listed the crafting of legislation, emerging regulatory frameworks, eliminating some of the common frustrations that contribute to physician burnout: as now problems. But while the AMA does this important and urgent work, Madara said the AMA must simultaneously keep its eye on the future by taking on some of the biggest and most difficult problems that physicians will face.