InfoWorld recently published an article by Paul Venezia entitled “10 IT agenda items for the first US CIO.” In reading through the article, I thought that some of the recommendations that Venezia makes could be more effective if a data quality strategy were also included as a part of the agenda.

For instance, the first suggested agenda item calls for “Mandatory restitution for customer data leaks.”  Although this is primarily focused on data breaches and the impact to consumers, my recommendation is that this agenda item should be expanded to include requiring a data quality firewall.

By doing so, any data coming into or leaving an organization would have standard data quality processes enforced.  Since data manipulation continues to move to more of a real-time process, having sufficient checks of the data, including standardizing key fields and looking for duplicates, is a way to ensure data integrity is maintained both at the source as well as throughout the data movement process.

A second agenda item noted by Venezia that should include a data quality component is agenda item seven, which is to “Codify national standards for electronic medical records.”  This agenda item is focused on ensuring records are captured and maintained electronically, which allows for ease of use in sharing information as patients move between medical facilities.  As a part of developing these standards and required processes to implement this, I would recommend that the new CIO require data quality as a core part of this process.

I am guilty of using “Chris” as well as “Christopher” when filling out medical forms, so I am one of those who adds to the confusion.  In addition, I have moved multiple times throughout the years, so having the ability to find duplicate records that may exist for me would be useful as institutions look to build a single, consolidated view of my history as a patient.  Maintaining historical information about past procedures, medicines and allergic reactions that goes beyond the last few years at a given medical practice should be a key part of any national standard as one works to get a holistic (and lifelong) view of a person’s medical history.

I would encourage everyone to take a look at Venezia’s article and let me know what you think.  Are there other agenda items for which you think data quality could be a helpful core requirement? Maybe we should tell our new U.S. CIO!