Planning Data Integration and Governance After a Healthcare Acquisition

You lead product at a healthcare services provider that has just bought a startup. Lay out how you would build one data strategy for the combined organization: what you would do first, how the two companies' data would come together, and how you would decide what the combined data should be used for. ```hint Start from why the deal happened A data strategy should serve the reason the startup was bought. Pin that reason down first, let it decide which data must connect early and which can wait, and keep patient privacy rules in view from the start. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - What does the startup do and what data does it hold, for example a consumer health app, a telehealth service or an analytics product, and why did we buy it? - Which countries do we operate in, and do the same health-privacy rules (in the US, HIPAA) already cover the startup's data? - Will the startup's product keep running under its own brand, or be folded into ours? - What do leaders expect the combined data to deliver first, and by when? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - Goals and a short list of priority use cases tied to the reason for the acquisition - An inventory of both companies' data: systems, quality, overlap, and the consent terms each data set was collected under - Governance, privacy and security for health data, including permitted uses, access control, de-identification and how the same patient is matched across systems - A phased integration plan and target architecture using healthcare interoperability standards, with clear choices on what stays separate during the transition - Success metrics and risks: patient trust, clinical safety, regulatory exposure and keeping the startup's speed ### Follow-up Questions - Some startup data was collected under terms that do not allow it to be used for our clinical services. What do you do? - How would you decide whether to adopt the startup's data platform or move the startup onto yours? - A year in, which metrics would show leadership that the data strategy is working?