4. Compare the importance of MDM at UMass Memorial and at Kraft Foods Inc., discussed in Section 12.1. Why do disparate or legacy systems create the need for MDM?

UMass Memorial Health Care (umassmemorial.org/ ) is an academic medical center and the largest healthcare hospital system in central and western Massachusetts. UMass Memorial is using the health information exchange (HIE) to facilitate patientcentered care. That is, it has aligned its IT with its business strategy to be responsive to the need to share information.
One of the critical components of the HIE is the ability to manage and answer questions about a patient’s identity and discover what information is shareable about the patients, no matter where it is stored. Medical privacy legislation, such as the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), mandates the ability to control access while at the same time making information shareable for legitimate healthcare reasons.