Data governance for healthcare: How regulated industries build trust at scale

In highly regulated industries like healthcare, data governance isn't just about compliance—it's fundamental to business success. While companies initially approach governance through a regulatory lens, forward-thinking organizations are discovering that robust data governance can actually accelerate innovation and growth while protecting sensitive information.

Consider Accurx, a healthcare software company that needed to manage over 40 million monthly events while maintaining strict compliance with healthcare regulations and GDPR. Their experience demonstrates how modern data governance has evolved into a strategic enabler rather than just a control framework.

Building trust through proactive data governance

Modern data governance begins with proactive controls that build trust. Accurx implemented strict governance controls to eliminate user identifiers while maintaining data utility. Using RudderStack's comprehensive governance toolkits, they established automated schema validation, real-time monitoring, and standardized data collection practices that prevent issues before they impact downstream systems.

RudderStack's Event Stream enabled Accurx to implement consistent data collection across their entire healthcare platform. By standardizing their event tracking, they created a reliable foundation for all downstream analytics and compliance efforts. The platform's built-in transformations feature allowed them to automatically detect and mask sensitive information in real-time, ensuring patient data remained protected throughout the entire data lifecycle.

Balancing access with protection

Today's data governance must balance democratization with control. Accurx's teams can now access and analyze data independently while maintaining compliance with healthcare regulations. Their product managers spend 3x less time on non-value-added tasks like data collection and cleanup, while ensuring all data remains secure and compliant.

RudderStack's role-based access controls and data governance features played a crucial role in this transformation. The infrastructure enabled Accurx to implement granular permissions, ensuring team members could access only the data necessary for their roles. Meanwhile, comprehensive audit logging provided the transparency required by healthcare compliance standards, creating a complete record of all data interactions.

Implementing enterprise-grade privacy

For healthcare companies, maintaining patient data privacy is non-negotiable. RudderStack's privacy-first architecture helped Accurx implement:

• Automated PII detection and masking across all data sources
• Customizable privacy rules aligned with healthcare regulations
• Centralized consent management
• Comprehensive audit trails for compliance verification

This privacy infrastructure enabled Accurx to maintain strict compliance with GDPR and healthcare regulations while still delivering valuable insights to their teams. By implementing privacy by design, they transformed what was once a compliance burden into a strategic advantage.

Measuring business impact

Effective governance delivers measurable results. Using RudderStack's secure data infrastructure, Accurx has seen powerful outcomes:

• They can securely track and analyze over 40 million events per month while stripping the data of PII
• Product managers are spending 3x less time to gain valuable product insights to inform new features
• Their implementation was completed in just four weeks, demonstrating the efficiency of RudderStack's healthcare-focused solutions
• They experienced increased data utilization across teams while maintaining zero privacy incidents–a crucial point for a healthcare company where privacy and compliance are of utmost importance

RudderStack's warehouse-native approach ensured that Accurx maintained complete control of their sensitive healthcare data. Unlike traditional CDPs that store data in third-party systems, RudderStack enabled Accurx to own their data and keep it within their own warehouse, while still providing the analytical capabilities needed to drive innovation.

The path forward

Modern data governance enables speed and innovation while maintaining security and compliance. As Accurx's Head of Data advises: "Invest in analytics tools early. Implementing RudderStack enabled us to build a solid foundation for our data maturity journey."

For healthcare organizations looking to implement robust data governance, RudderStack offers several key advantages:

• HIPAA and GDPR compliance capabilities built into the platform
• Healthcare-specific implementation expertise
• Scalable infrastructure designed for sensitive data
• Real-time governance controls
• Complete data ownership

The future belongs to organizations that view governance not as a restriction, but as a catalyst for trusted innovation. With the right infrastructure in place, healthcare companies can transform their approach to data, driving better patient outcomes while maintaining the highest standards of privacy and compliance.

Learn more about Accurx's data governance journey with RudderStack