Jessica Davis

Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC was the first pediatric hospital in the U.S. to achieve Stage 7 recognition from HIMSS. Leveraging data analytics has been a significant initiative and commitment of time, said Srinivasan Suresh, MD, the hospital's chief medical information officer. "We don't just see it as another tool," he said. "It's not just an IT buzzword; it's about improving care." The hospital utilizes multiple advanced analytics tools. One of them is a customized tool based on the Rothman Index, which uses an algorithm to generate an early warning sign indicator. The software pulls data from the Cerner EMR (including nursing assessments, which are textual) and translates it into a 'Rothman score' that ranges from 0-100, presented with graphs that track trends throughout admission. >> SPECIAL REPORT NEXT STEP: Quality and depth important to develop predictive analytics solutions Providers can predict when certain patients may need a transfer to the intensive care unit. According to Suresh, the original model was only effective for adults. So Children's, with help from clinical surveillance vendor PeraHealth, co-developed a model specifically for children, by adjusting the variables based on age-based differences. "The biggest overarching outcome is to eliminate avoidable harm," he said. IT plays a big and meaningful part in improving care outcomes. We apply IT to reduce operational costs, improve system efficiencies, better understand workflow and reduce avoidable readmissions." The team spent the last two years extensively testing the pediatric Rothman Index, or pRI, before it went live in November 2015. Although the lead-up time was long, it was important to ensure the value that the new score would provide to patients and clinicians, Suresh said: "The biggest challenge to implementation is time." The pRI is a dynamic tool that is now available for every acute care patient in the hospital. According to Suresh, another key aspect of a successful go-live is physician buy-in. "It's a critical part of implementation," he said. "I want physicians and nurses to ask me lots of questions. That really helps me to serve their needs better. Learn more at the Healthcare IT News Big Data and Healthcare Analytics Forum in San Francisco, June 14-15, 2016. Register here. "I have a great team," he said. "When dealing with large amounts of data, it is the skill sets of the team members and the teamwork that help generate success." As part of building their analytics platform, Children’s established a separate Data Warehouse team within their IT set-up. This helped to streamline data requests from clinicians and administrators, and also with the data mining projects. "Advanced analytics is an absolute need," said Suresh. "It's an investment in time and resources. Although you may not see results early on, over time it reduces costs, length of stay and morbidity. … It's important to keep focused on the long-term outcomes." The Healthcare IT News Special Report: Bridging the big data-analytics gap Data-Analytics Gap: How real-time strategies can improve care quality and efficiency Case Study: St. Joseph Healthcare sees dramatic improvement serving high-risk population with HealthInfoNet Case Study:  UnityPoint Health connects providers and hospitals with predictive analytics to improve patient care Next Step: Quality and depth important to develop predictive analytics solutions

Harnessing analytics has led to big gains for Maine-based health system to dramatically reduce readmissions, identify high-risk patients and utilize real-time data.

There are two major roadblocks for analytics in healthcare, says Sriram Vishwanath, professor of engineering and data science at University of Texas, Austin. They have to do with two different mindsets: "the analytics is a commodity" and "it's my data and I won't share." In the "commodity" mindset, providers feel pressured to join the other organizations with analytics in place and rush out to hire low-cost engineers to create an analytics system. But according to Vishwanath, "this mindset is dangerous, as it leads to a lot of sub-standard dashboards all being paraded around as predictive analytics solutions. "Analytics isn't just putting together a bunch of engineers," he added. "Quality, team-skill, years of experience and depth of understanding the matter. It's important to recognize that analytics should be done right the first time, by working with an exceptional, high-quality team of PhDs." With the "I won't share" mindset, meanwhile, data is seen as a precious commodity, and providers find it painful to let go of their data. This mentality is a common complaint, he said, but it's "gradually changing – albeit at a glacial pace." It's important for all entities involved in healthcare to work together. Not just institutions as a whole, but also within an organization, from the MDs to the C-suite. "Working together is critical here, to accept that neither side knows it all and must learn from the other," said CHP's Suresh. Other hurdles to overcome include bridging the gap between the providers who feel analytics are an overwhelming waste of time and the vendors who press that analytics are a fix-all solution for every problem. Neither of these extremes is true, said Suresh. "Predictions can never be 100 percent accurate. If they were 100 percent accurate, one would call it a fact, not a prediction," he said. "Is it right 9 out of 10 times? Well, then you have a great predictive engine in your hands. Healthcare predictions are meant to supplement, support and guide and can never be 100 percent accurate." Learn more at the Healthcare IT News Big Data and Healthcare Analytics Forum in San Francisco, June 14-15, 2016. Register here. "Healthcare has a long journey in finding true value from analytics," he added. "There's tremendous value for healthcare from analytics when analytics is done right. Healthcare analytics will, someday, change the way we manage care. This is not an if, it's a when." To accomplish this task all stakeholders must be on the same page. For Vishwanath, those organizations attempting to leverage analytics must lean on professional vendors with established platforms in place and come prepared with goals. Analytics tools are only effective when they are designed to meet a specific need within an organization. "If the vendor can prove its accuracy and does so with relative ease, put them on your target list," Vishwanath said. "If they obfuscate with lots of buzzwords, walk away." The Healthcare IT News Special Report: Bridging the big data-analytics gap Data-Analytics Gap: How real-time strategies can improve care quality and efficiency Case Study: St. Joseph Healthcare sees dramatic improvement serving high-risk population with HealthInfoNet Case Study:  UnityPoint Health connects providers and hospitals with predictive analytics to improve patient care Case Study: Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh develops customized prediction indicator for children with PeriHealth

Fewer than half of healthcare organizations participating in a recent survey are currently using C&BI tools. But HIMSS Analytics anticipates that the shift to value-based care and advances in predictive and prescriptive analytics technologies could change that in the near-term.

The research and advocacy group is calling upon data scientists and computational analysts to leverage its database to expand understanding of the disease.

The pediatric endocrinologist at Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital is known for his HealthKit pilot study on Type 1 diabetes patients.

Vice President Joe Biden unveiled the precision medicine database on Monday, speaking at its operations center at the University of Chicago. Genomic Data Commons is a National Cancer Institute initiative and is central to the National Cancer Moonshot and Precision Medicine Initiative.

Tribune officials said that partnering with Soon-Shiong will give them access to patents for machine vision and artificial intelligence to transform the publishing company. 

A surge of recent developments – the rise in apps for care management and wellness, advances in research data, precision medicine gains – is placing a great responsibility on healthcare leaders to break down data silos to simplify data sharing among providers. And consumers, too.

During the "Future of Innovation" session at ONC's Annual meeting on May 31, three of the health IT industry's top leaders discussed the current interoperability landscape, offering perspectives on how it's evolving and assessing its potential.