FEATURE Data: The gateway to improving health care quality and value depending on your perspective; the controversial EMR can be a trusted friend BY MARK WENDLING, MD, Executive Director of Valley Preferred, and a family medicine physician 14 Lehigh County Health & Medicine | WINTER 2019 " T he goal now is to understand as much about a patient as possible, as early in their life as possible - hopefully picking up warning signs of serious illness at an early enough stage that treatment is far more simple (and less expensive) than if it had not been spotted until later." https://www.forbes.com/sites/ bernardmarr/2015/04/21/how-big-data-ischanging-healthcare/#24ee7e232873https://www.forbes.com/sites/