From MBDS to big data: a hospital information system for the 21st century

Abstract

The Minimum Basic Data Set (MBDS) is a hospital information system of demographic type that has been developed in the National Health System (NHS) for over more than 25 years. The present study analyzes its evolution from its beginnings to latest version called the Register of Specialized Health Care (RSH-MBDS). This new model standardizing all activity at specialized level, both in hospitalization and ambulatory care in public and private sector, allowing to know about the operation of hospitals, care activity, pathologies treated, complexity and clinical approach and the costs involved. Clinical-administrative records, as is the case of RSH-MBDS, are a great opportunity for the exploitation of massive health data or big data, with the aim of being able to know in advance the incidence of diseases, their management and the different healthcare outcomes, in the entire NHS, as a separately or compared by hospitals or health centers. If the forecasts for the next years are fulfilled, large-scale data management could improve decision-making efficiency in the planning, evaluation and development of health systems, becoming the RSH-MBDS in the most relevant data source for the management of services, knowledge of the population health and epidemiological research.