Population and Public Health

Nicholas Marko, MD breaks down the differences between big data analytics and business intelligence, and explains how Geisinger chooses between centralizing and federating data.

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.

Healthcare IT News and HIMSS are accepting topic and speaker proposals for Pop Health Forum 2016, scheduled for September 12-13.

Geisinger Chief Data Officer Nicholas Marko, MD, says deriving value from data depends on a sound roadmap. Here’s a look at how to determine what you need to get there.

Providence Health and Services also joins consortium of hospitals teaming with Syapse to establish OPN that will advance data sharing and speed development of personalized cancer treatments.

Mayo Clinic will provide the infrastructure to store, analyze and host data for researchers as part of a program that aims to enroll one million people to boost President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative.

Simplified regulations around MACRA meaningful use could address the loss of efficiency and usefulness of electronic health records software to enable more flexibility for the doctors using them, said Shawn Griffin, MD, of Memorial Hermann Physician Network.

Chipmaker said that Lumiata will use the money to drive predictive analytics to improve risk and care management for organizations practicing population health. 

(SPONSORED) Jim Bresee, VP of Solutions Management, talks about how Allscripts' solution addresses both fee-for-service and value-based needs simultaneously.

Financial incentives, information technology advances and new care models have created fertile soil for population health management programs to grow. But for these efforts to flourish healthcare organizations need more sophisticated analytics, patient stratification, community involvement and care management, according to a May 2016 report from PwC Health Research Institute. “So far, most efforts have been narrow, with promising results. These early results signal the full potential of population health if scaled across geographies, diseases and the continuum of care,” PwC’s “Population Health: Scaling Up,” report noted. “Yet many organizations still struggle to scale their efforts – an essential step as they take on more risk in value-based payment contracts.” [Also: The essence of population health: Design and user experience] Seventy percent of clinicians do not participate in risk-based, incentive-based or shared-savings reimbursement models, PwC said, even though adoption of these payment models is a major goal of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Healthcare organizations with evidence that population health programs are working well on a large scale are more likely to be rewarded under these reimbursement models. The PwC report suggested six steps healthcare organizations can take to advance population health programs to highly effective levels. First, healthcare organizations should “pick a major,” PwC said. So, for instance, carrying on the university area of study example, an academic medical center might “minor” in population-based care at the community level and “major” in acute and chronic health population health. Second, healthcare organizations need to “think retail,” the report continued. “Today’s consumers are expecting health providers to offer the personalized levels of service and convenience they receive from other industries,” PwC said. More than 80 percent of consumers are open to non-traditional ways of receiving care, PwC added, such as virtual visits, at-home diagnostic monitoring and home care visits. Establishing a funding mechanism is a third step healthcare organizations must take to achieve success in population health management, PwC advised. “Organizations should design a payer strategy for population health to manage risk and sustain operations,” the report said. “Some providers are partnering with insurers to outsource activities such as risk score optimization, actuarial analysis and claims administration. Others are on their way to becoming licensed health plans, a growing trend in a value-based health economy.” Healthcare organizations also should plan for early losses and contract accordingly, the PwC report suggested as a fourth step. “Organizations should evaluate their abilities to tolerate risk and assess their capital positions to support population health strategies,” the report said. “Organizations should structure partnership contracts so that risk is shared appropriately among all partners in their population health delivery networks.”  [Also: Healthcare analytics has long journey to deliver real value, data scientist says] Fifth, healthcare organizations should be prepared to redirect pent-up demand. “Organizations with excess demand may have smoother transitions as they operate more efficiently,” PwC said. “They can replace lost volume, continue to operate at high capacity and improve their returns on fixed costs.” Finally, to succeed in population health, providers must evaluate programs often and make adjustments promptly, the PwC report advised “Population health programs require heavy operations investments and have high fixed costs,” the report said. “Organizations should build care services around patient cohorts and actively monitor health outcomes. They should regularly reevaluate whether patients assigned to each group still belong there.” Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT Email the writer: bill.siwicki@himssmedia.com Like Healthcare IT News on Facebook and LinkedIn