Partners' quality management group is comprised of researchers from Massachusetts General and Brigham who deal with methodology and issues of data definition. Other groups from Brigham and Massachusetts General analyze care patterns and must be conversant with whatever cross-exchange of data is occurring. The quality management group concluded early on that the central database of quality measures should contain no provider or patient identifying information. Furthermore, analysts who want to compare data between institutions can't do it at the individual provider or patient level. Another factor is handling potentially explosive comparative data that might show one organization is better than another.
Nobody likes to be told that the guys down the street are better.
Partners addressed this issue by placing a lock on the clinical data warehouse that contained data from Massachusetts General and Brigham. The analytical staff at each entity could run analyses at the provider or patient level of detail, but they could use only the data from their own facility. The staff are just beginning to generate useful analyses. It's stunning to me how much data there is. To assure uniformity, a medical informatics group is working with clinical laboratory staff at both institutions to arrive at a control vocabulary and definitions of certain tests with which all personnel are comfortable.