The Roundtable on Value and Science-Driven Healthcare met for its 5th meeting on February 28 and 29, 2008.

Discovering what works best in medical care–including for whom and under what circumstances–requires that clinical data be carefully nurtured as a resource for continuous learning.  Participants seek to explore the transformational opportunities that could be available by evolving large and potentially interoperable clinical and administrative data sets, held in multiple activities and many institutions.  Challenges such as barriers and restrictions that derive from the treatment of medical care data as a proprietary commodity by the organizations involved will also be addressed.  Broader access and use of healthcare data for new insights requires not only fostering data system reliability and interoperability, but addressing the matter of individual data ownership and the extent to which data central to progress in health and health care should constitute a public good.