From Systems to Information: Rethinking Legacy Data in Healthcare

At HIMSS26, Legacy Data Access CEO Shawn Fichter joined us to talk about why health systems should transition from holding on to legacy applications to a more strategic approach that makes access to their historical data easier and more purposeful.Post-COVID cost pressures and a wave of point solutions left many organizations drowning in siloed data. Fichter argues the problem runs deeper than technology choices. When left unmanaged, legacy applications quietly become security liabilities and information dead-ends. M&A activity only compounds the chaos by generating duplicate and orphaned systems with no clear need for access.The antidote, he suggests, is a proactive archival strategy built around use cases rather than applications. That means engaging clinicians, HIM managers, finance and HR leaders, and research teams to understand how they actually need to access information, and then designing a governance approach that balances ease of use with a defensible risk profile. Getting that balance right also has a direct payoff: optimized data management reduces the overhead required for routine reporting and release-of-information work.Learn more about Legacy Data Access: https://www.legacydataaccess.com/Healthcare IT Community: https://www.healthcareittoday.com/