Healthcare Data GlossaryTech
Provenance: Definition and Healthcare Context
Full name: Data Provenance
Data provenance is the documented record of where a piece of data came from, how it was obtained, and how it has changed over time. For a single field on a provider record — a name, an address, an exclusion date — provenance answers which source published it, when that source was captured, and what transformation produced the displayed value. Provenance is what lets a downstream user trace any rendered fact back to a named government file and reporting period, rather than treating the data as an unsourced assertion.
Last updated: 2026-06-17Reviewed by: Dr. Jennifer Montecillo, MD — Gullas College of Medicine, 2019. Non-practicing medical reviewer.
How it’s used
- Every rendered field traces to a source row, a capture date, and a stated limitation, surfaced on the page through a source chip.
- Fonteum binds each fact to a fixed provenance contract — source, agency, snapshot date, methodology version, and chain link among its fields.
- OIG LEIE (oig-leie), CMS NPPES, and the other source families each carry their own provenance so a join across them keeps per-field lineage intact.
Frequently asked questions
- What is data provenance?
- Data provenance is the documented lineage of a value — which source published it, when it was captured, and how it was transformed — so any rendered fact can be traced back to its origin.
- What is field-level provenance?
- Field-level provenance attaches lineage to each individual fact on a record rather than to the dataset as a whole, so a provider's address and exclusion date each carry their own source and date.
- Why does provenance matter for healthcare data?
- Provider data drives credentialing and payment decisions, so a reader must be able to trace any claim to a named federal file and reporting period instead of trusting an unsourced number.
Explore in Fonteum
How Fonteum sources, resolves, and publishes data tied to this term.