Data quality: how the flow of data influences data quality in a small to medium medical practice

Abstract

Data is said to be of a required quality, if the data conforms to a defined specification and this specification correctly reflects its intended use. The importance of data and data quality within a Small to Medium Medical Practice (SMMP) cannot be ignored. Medical practitioners need accurate information in a form that is manageable and relevant to their context. The quality of data needs to be addressed in SMMPs as medical practitioners are often faced with making life threatening decisions. The key elements identified in literature, that need to be considered before data quality can be understood are: the processes that generates and stores the data, data quality roles and responsibilities, the methods that exchange the data, complex nature of the data, flow of data and the different views of all the data stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to determine the different data stakeholders of a SMMP and to establish the flow of the data between them. The flow of data is important in understanding the nature of the data. The paper will depict the different data roles by applying a landscape model that will show the flow of data between data stakeholders in a SMMP. The three data roles of data producer, consumer and custodian are considered and to what extent the different data stakeholders perform these roles. This landscape model and the data roles can be used for further research to investigate the flow of data and how it impacts on the quality of data in a SMMP.