How to Streamline Data Management for Better Patient Care

By Arcadia Director of Special Projects Logan Masta

In a 2024 survey, 56% of healthcare leaders agreed that accurate data helps them improve the quality of care they deliver. However, 68% of organizations have no immediate strategy to adopt innovations in analytics and artificial intelligence. This gap represents a common theme in the healthcare industry: Data holds vast potential for transforming patient care, but practices struggle to realize value without proper data management.

When dental professionals adopt effective data strategies that balance efficiency, accuracy, and compliance with guidelines like HIPAA, patients ultimately benefit. Data management equips providers with the necessary information to identify opportunities that help improve outcomes, coordinate treatments and deliver timely care that targets patients’ exact needs.

This article explores the impact of strong data management on patient care and outcomes, as well as how dental practices can implement effective data management.

1. Build a data governance framework

Efficient data management starts with a solid framework of standards and policies. By rooting analytics procedures in proper data governance, providers can ensure they’re effectively (and safely) using data to extract meaningful insights.

According to Arcadia, healthcare analytics involves “collecting, managing, analyzing and visualizing data to derive valuable insights and make informed decisions.” An effective data management framework should impact each of the following steps of the analytics process:

• Collection. High-quality, comprehensive and real-time data drives more accurate diagnoses and helps providers map out preventative or restorative treatment plans. Prioritize thorough data collection processes to ensure all information is reliable and accurately represents patients’ health.
• Management. Due to the sensitive nature of health data, privacy and security protocols are critical for safely managing patient information. Effective governance frameworks include policies, regulations and rules that govern data usage to safeguard private information.
• Analysis. Applying statistical methods and techniques to vast datasets requires careful consideration of ethical use and accurate interpretations. Governance frameworks establish standards for analyzing health data, which support unbiased outputs.
• Visualization. To communicate the insights uncovered by data analysis, leverage platforms that present data in an understandable format. A strong framework includes standards for data sharing and robust technology to effectively communicate insights.

When providers follow clear data standards at each point of the analytics process, they’re better equipped to make informed clinical decisions that improve care coordination and patients’ long-term outcomes. Essentially, a strong governance framework lays the foundation for high-quality data that informs high-quality patient care.

2. Reduce complexity by using data management tools

Health data comes from a variety of sources, such as electronic health records (EHRs) and population-level trends. As a result, this information is often fragmented and inconsistently formatted, which hinders data exchange and reduces its usability in care delivery.

By implementing an integrated healthcare data platform, providers can access accurate, timely data analysis that informs patient treatment plans.

To help you understand the technology necessary for streamlined management, here is an overview of the full data platform lifecycle:

• The platform collects raw data and stores it in a data lake.
• The platform analyzes and enriches the data to convert it into a normalized format.
• Normalized data is stored in a healthcare data warehouse.
• Analysts and providers collaborate to pull usable data to generate insights. 
• The platform integrates with unique applications based on an organization’s needs.

An integrated healthcare data platform handles the data collection, enrichment, analytics and transfers needed to push data through an organization’s ecosystem. This not only provides the holistic information needed for informed patient care but also streamlines data management for efficient analytics.

3. Improve data accessibility

Beyond data storage and analysis, strong data management ensures health information is accessible to the right teams at the right time. Health data becomes significantly less valuable when access is limited, difficult or delayed.

Improving accessibility ensures data can drive action at every level of a healthcare organization. One tool that practices can use for this purpose is a healthcare dashboard, which provides real-time analytics and visualizations and makes data shareable. Dashboards can extract metrics directly related to patient care, such as:

• Patient satisfaction
• Appointment efficiency
• Financial performance

With streamlined access to valuable insights, dental professionals can easily translate data into a wide variety of performance improvements. Analytics can improve more than just decisions at the point of care — it can impact overall practice management.

4. Foster a data-driven culture

Sustainable improvements in patient care require a data-informed culture. When entire health systems adopt a data-first mindset, patients have better experiences at every step of the way, from initial appointment scheduling to the exam room.

Strategies to foster a data-driven culture include:

• Sharing relevant policies. Educate team members on organization-wide standards for data management, such as a data classification policy that dictates how health teams access, store and share health data.
• Promoting data literacy. Ensure all team members are aligned on data usage best practices, including security policies and compliance standards.
• Encouraging cross-team collaboration. Break down data silos to facilitate shared learning and insights.

To sustain a data-driven culture, providers must regularly audit their workflows and assess performance. This way, they can identify gaps and adjust processes as needed.

Modern healthcare requires modern data strategies. With effective data management practices in place, dental practices can make informed decisions that benefit patients and support organizational operational success.

Logan drives the development of Arcadia’s next-generation product concepts, including AI-powered conversational analytics, automated document processing for clinical and risk data, and intelligent platforms for value-based care contracting. His efforts accelerate Arcadia’s ability to deliver real-time insights and scalable infrastructure for health plans and providers.

Before joining Arcadia, Logan held leadership roles at CareMax, where he managed enterprise product strategy, technology integration, and M&A execution. He also served as a management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, advising federal health clients on telehealth and system transformation.

Logan earned a B.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Florida and is Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certified by Dartmouth College. Logan lives in southern Florida and enjoys fishing when he’s not creating innovative solutions for healthcare.