Clinical and operational insights from data-driven care pathway mapping: a systematic review

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Health Services Research
• Data Science in Healthcare

Background:

• Electronic health data from diverse clinical settings is increasingly used to map patient care sequences.
• Derived de facto care pathways offer valuable clinical and operational insights.
• Growing demand from health systems and patients will likely drive further application of these analyses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a comprehensive literature review on data-driven determination of de facto patient care pathways.
• To focus on the study context, analytical methods, and utility of information gained from care pathway analysis.
• To explore the application of these methods in service redesign.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of literature on sequential patient care activities (de facto care pathways).
• Utilized Scopus search, citation screening (forward and backward snowballing), and inclusion of previous related reviews.
• Classified studies by pathway perspective, data types, analysis techniques, clinical domain, and knowledge gained.

Main Results:

• Identified 254 relevant publications.
• Majority (n=217) derived pathways from administrative/clinical data.
• 80% (n=173) applied further analytical techniques, and 60% (n=131) combined pathways with enhancing data for process insights.

Conclusions:

• Data-driven de facto patient care pathway methods provide empirical data for healthcare planning, management, and practice.
• Despite numerous publications, the field of data-driven care pathway analysis is nascent.
• Further research and application are anticipated due to the utility of these insights.