Where is Your Organization on the Identity Intelligence Maturity Curve?

For healthcare organizations, everything begins with – and depends upon – Knowing Who’s Who™. 

At the most fundamental level, that means making sure records are attached to the right patient. Without that, treatments can be wrong, medications mismanaged, and bills delayed. At this stage, the goal is more about avoiding mistakes that cause harm than improving operations or driving strategic growth.

But as the volume and sophistication of identity capabilities grow, so do the ways in which they can be harnessed for strategic data-driven initiatives essential to improving outcomes, efficiency and growth. For most healthcare organizations, identity intelligence is a journey from basic identity resolution in clinical systems to enterprise-wide identity intelligence, unifying data across systems of record, engagement and insight.  The result is a complete and trusted 360-degree view of consumers, patients, providers and their relationships that can be used to power these enterprise-wide initiatives.    

The 5 levels of identity intelligence maturity 

The identity intelligence maturity curve is a model that helps organizations evaluate how effectively they manage identity data today. It also provides a roadmap for building stronger capabilities to support future growth and evolving demands. 

• Level 1 – Exploring
  Preliminary steps toward building an identity data management strategy have been taken, but solutions are inefficient and require significant manual effort.
• Level 2 – Doing
  Organizations leverage core clinical or operational systems for identity resolution, but most data remain siloed. Various EHRs and decentralized systems have their own strategies and solutions, but these capabilities are highly inefficient and not enterprise wide.
• Level 3 – Becoming
  An organization has transitioned to a centralized identity strategy that extends beyond clinical systems, but processes are still largely manual.
• Level 4 – Being
  Identity data management is centralized and automated, operating in real time and covering a wide array of data domains. It has begun delivering real value across the enterprise.
• Level 5 – Mastering
  Identity data management is fully ingrained in the organization’s culture and supports data-driven decision-making across all aspects of the enterprise. It acts as a central hub across the enterprise in various modes, such as maintaining a golden record with bi-directional synchronization with source systems based on in-context data governance or even as the system of record with all updates made centrally and synchronized to source systems.  It serves as a true differentiator from its competitors.

Identifying your place on the maturity curve 

Given the decentralized nature of identity data management at many organizations, it can be difficult for them to determine their level on the maturity curve. The likelihood that some departments or service lines are ahead of others in the same organization can add to the confusion.  

There are six questions that healthcare organizations must answer to determine their place on the curve: 

1. Sources of truth – How many reliable, verifiable sources of identity data exist? A Level 1 organization lacks a single source of truth, while a Level 5 has an enterprise-wide source of truth, such as a centralized MDM system or data warehouse. 
2. Areas of data excellence – What types of data are being mastered (e.g., patients, providers, consumers, members, locations)? Level 1 is limited to patient data, while Level 5 has identified and mastered all relevant types of data.
3. Agility and flexibility – How efficiently can the organization turn data into assets? Level 1 can onboard new clinical data, but different systems are not integrated; Level 5 can onboard data, sources, and systems efficiently while also pulling in additional resources.  
4. Data stewardship – How manual or automated are processes for resolving discrepancies? Level 1 requires a third-party vendor to manually resolve discrepancies; Level 5 prevents or resolves discrepancies at the source. 
5. Data governance – How clear and effective are policies for provisioning and managing data? Level 1 lacks, or outsources, data governance policies and procedures. Level 5 has clear, up-to-date policies and procedures.
6. Data trust – Can data be trusted and confidently shared among stakeholders? Level 1 lacks trust in the data and/or cannot reconcile disconnected sources of data. Level 5 trusts its data from internal and external sources, can derive insights, and confidently shares it with patients and providers.

By answering these questions, healthcare leaders can determine their place on the maturity curve and create a roadmap to strengthen their identity intelligence capabilities.

Why improve identity data management? 

Moving up the identity intelligence maturity curve transforms the relationship between healthcare organizations and the people they serve. When identity is trusted and unified, they can create experiences that feel personal and seamless. Good experiences build stickiness. And when patients feel recognized and cared for, they keep coming back.

Smarter growth – Growth today depends less on scale and more on creating loyalty. Organizations that create a foundation for their data set themselves up for long-term success. Now they can make confident decisions in areas like mergers and acquisitions, market and service line expansion, and patient acquisition and retention.

Improved care – Better data management can strengthen every interaction between patient and provider. Yes, it reduces errors and duplicate tests, but it also allows health systems to provide better experiences that build trust. For example, every time a patient receives a lab result or follow-up appointment reminder automatically, they know their care provider is invested in them.

Actionable insights – With a data foundation in place, leaders can finally see the full patient journey and design care pathways that are fresh, unique, and tailored to the individual. They can move beyond dashboards and deliver real-world engagement — from targeted outreach for high-value procedures to identifying community members at risk of care gaps.

Care delivery innovation – At the highest level of maturity, organizations can interact across every channel without losing continuity. In this sense, identity intelligence is the foundation for new models of care. It is no longer a back-office IT function. It is the backbone that allows health systems to compete on the same terms as leading digital brands. 

Climbing the curve

The digital health ecosystem is only becoming more complex. For CIOs and chief digital officers, mastering identity intelligence is no longer optional — it is the foundation for interoperability and care transformation. The maturity model gives leaders a framework to see where they stand and where to go next. Those that climb the curve will not only be positioned to modernize IT, but also to deliver the kind of trusted, connected experiences that define the future of healthcare.