Analytics
In this age of big data, analytics in healthcare has expanded from business intelligence and revenue-cycle management to clinical care.
Health information exchange is at a crossroads, with many HIEs having exhausted their funding -- and some having already gone out of business -- just as data exchange is becoming more important than ever. Some innovative exchanges are proving their value, however.
The shift toward value-based care has sparked a demand for analytics like never before, according to a report from research firm KLAS. The report also points out that the demand has vendors rushing a wave of new products to market.
Effective use of analytics is "not something you can buy from a vendor; it's an organizational and cultural value that has to grow and mature," said James E. Gaston, speaking Thursday at the Healthcare IT News/HIMSS Media Healthcare Business Intelligence Forum in Washington.
Geisinger Health System, the pioneering integrated care network, is "perfectly designed to do a huge number of experiments in both the provider and payer sides," said its Chief Executive Officer Glenn Steele Jr., MD, on Thursday.
ONC chief Karen DeSalvo said in an April keynote on Capitol Hill it's time for ONC to drive healthcare beyond the meaningful use of electronic health records toward the use of big data.
Like most CIOs of three-hospital health systems, Karen Bowling has plenty keeping her busy these days. Now there's even more to do. With the mission of meeting a slew of federal mandates pretty much well in hand, it's time to help steer toward a future of accountable care.
With apologies to Internet meme-makers everywhere, analytics experts have a message for healthcare providers trying to get their heads around business and clinical intelligence: "Big data, you're doing it wrong."
We hear a lot about patient engagement these days. Certainly, the idea is a noble one. And the benefits it could bring when practiced on a wide scale are immense. But a lot of providers are still wondering: How do you do it?
There are two types of analytics projects: those boundary-pushing advancements that, where they do exist, are mainly the product of big hospitals and academic medical centers, and the humbler, more doable -- but sometimes just as valuable -- insights that can be gleaned by smaller providers.