Analytics

Dr. Michael Zaroukian, CMIO at Sparrow Health System, talks about how Sparrow measures the success of using data and analytics to put interventions where they will do the most good.

More than 60 percent of payers and providers say they plan to increase their analytics budgets by 15 percent or more, according to a new report from the Society of Actuaries.

The goal is to improve identification of certain patients through algorithms that produce tailored and dynamic risk scores, and make those resources available to VA caregivers and patients.

Cisco Systems is taking on the challenge of linking the enormous amount of data generated by EMRs as well as consumer and enterprise devices in the same clinical space, says Brendan Lovelock, health practice lead at Cisco.

Jay Spence, vice president of healthcare solutions at Kaufman Hall's software division, says providers need a now, near and far paradigm to link strategy to a financial plan.

Tushar Mehrotra, senior vice president of analytics at Optum, says that with healthcare at a turning point when it comes to using data analytics, AI is no longer just a "nice to have" competency.

The “Bringing Predictive Analytics to Healthcare Challenge” is the third in a series designed to encourage innovators to focus on healthcare. 

The Australian Government has invested a further $6.3 million towards developing the Health Data Portal, used to report on Indigenous health data. The portal, used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services and funded under the Indigenous Australians’ Health Programme (IAHP), allows healthcare providers to publish reports for public consumption or exchange data and other files with authenticated individuals, businesses and other government agencies. It aims to provide a simplified and streamlined process for organisations to deliver health services in communities. The portal is also used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services to submit National Key Performance Indicators (nKPIs) and from July 1, will include the Online Services Report (OSR) and the Health Care Provider (HCP) number report. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare maintains and reports on the nKPI data collection. nKPIs are determined to improve the delivery of primary healthcare services by supporting quality improvement activities among service providers. They also support policy and planning at the national and state/territory level by monitoring progress and highlighting areas for improvement. According to Minister for Indigenous Health Ken Wyatt, the extra funding comes as a result of the success of data collected in January. “In January 2019, 100 per cent of 238 reporting health services successfully submitted their nKPI data through the portal,” he said, in a statement. “The success of the January 2019 data collection can be attributed to the co-design approach, which saw the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector involved in the development of the portal. This included working together on the design, prototype and user testing of the portal.” [Read more: ‘Reputations on the line’: NT digital health record roll out approaches the halfway mark | All-women team set to improve Indigenous health with “highly unusual” grant win] Wyatt also said the funding signifies the Federal Government’s commitment to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services to develop practical, evidence-based policy and deliver programs that will make a difference to the lives of First Australians. “This collection is one of the most advanced primary healthcare data sets available as it gathers care and outcome data from all IAHP health services. It is part of our focus on closing the gap and supporting culturally appropriate primary health care and programs,” he said. “Ensuring high quality primary healthcare is delivered in a culturally and competent way is a key to improving the health and wellbeing of First Australians in communities across Australia.”

Goldacre, director at the University of Oxford’s Evidence-Based Medicine DataLab, spoke at the Digital Health Rewired conference in London yesterday.

A new report from Chilmark Research finds more health systems broadening their applications of data tools and putting them to work for initiatives beyond value-based care.