Healthcare is finally evolving towards using big data in our decision-making. The landscape has changed significantly with the adoption of Electronic Medical Record. Healthcare use to be a predominately paper based vertical and there are still great deals of locations where it is controlled by paper. The fax is also still alive as a communication channel, however the industry has transformed significantly in the last couple of years.
According to the Office Of The National Coordinator in 2013, nearly six in ten (59 %) health centers had embraced at least a Basic EHR system. This represents a boost of 34 % from 2012 to 2013 and a five-fold increase given that 2008.
The workflow for the clinician and physician documentation does take a little bit longer now that they have to type instead of write their notes, however the advantages of having discrete data elements to run analytics will transform the decision making of every organization. If you Google the meaning of “big data” the agreement definition is the wealth of structured, semi-structured and unstructured data that has the potential to be mined for information.
Unfortunately the healthcare vertical is still playing capture up and the bulk of the organizations still just have Electronic Medical Record (EMR) data being made use of for decision-making. The healthcare vertical use to be just like the airline industry where the secret to success was keeping the healthcare facility beds inhabited similar to how the airline industry wanted to keep every seat on the aircraft filled. The new model of care is figuring out a mechanism to keep patients out of the medical facility beds and concentrate on keeping them healthy through preventative measures. We have to do all this while figuring out the right financial model to be successful.
As we move down the trip where we shift from a charge for service payment model to a value based payment model it is critical for every organization to transform their business process. Analytics will be type in making that modification. Now let’s concentrate on the 2 main difficulties that will require doctor to concentrate on data to drive their choices impacting their operations internally and externally.
Healthcare repimbursements have decreased every year
This has a huge financial influence on health care given that the Medicare expenditures have been growing as the child boomer population ages. There has also been a steady increase of Medicaid expenditures, so the trend of lower reimbursements for caring for a growing population will be what lies ahead for us in healthcare. Reliable, quality delivery of care while decreasing waste will be the main motorist of success in the future.
Doctor should comprehend the cost of providing care down to the device level. You will be shocked by the variation of cost for different procedures. The exact same treatment cost can vary by as much as 15-25 % based on the products used. So one of the crucial elements of cost containment is standardization. As we change to a value based payment model there will also be value based contracts which will be structured to a shared savings model. The legal terms will differ however the general theme will be to incentivize the service providers to lower cost for providing quality care to a population by offering a percentage of the net savings. We are seeing this trend in the Medicare shared conserving program and leveraging data analytics will be the key-driving tool for this to be effective.
The Move Towards Personalized Care
Consumers/patients have various expectations now. We are staying in an on-demand individualized world where every market vertical is moving towards a predictive environment including healthcare. The perfect scenario would be to take in data from the social platforms, wearables/sensors, mobile, public data, and other sources so that we can truly understand in real time the current state of the consumer/patient.
Let’s assume the circumstance of a digital consumer who is currently a diabetic patient that has actually been prescribed to be on a low calorie diet plan. The patient uses a fitbit as well as has their smartphone app that tracks her heart rate. The heart rate is a bit higher than normal and the patient feels a bit off. This wearable and mobile app is incorporated with a central monitoring system at the health center and an alarm activates a clinician who checks the patient profile and history and takes the proactive measure of making a video call to the patient.
The patient addresses the video call with the clinician and they have a video interaction where the clinician can see the facial color of the patient and asks a couple of questions. Thankfully the patient completed an intense workout about a hour ago so things are great with the irregular heart rate at the minute and this video interaction also alleviates any stress and anxiety for the patient. It has to do with 7pm so the patient chooses to obtain something to eat and he is yearning a burger so he draws in to the drive through. The patient has his GPS turned on from his smartphone and also posts on Facebook that he is at a junk food chain’s drive through. This data aspect is selected up by the healthcare facility’s CRM app and after that an automated text is sent to the patient reminding him of the low calorie diet and makes a few suggestion from the menu. The patient can now make an inform choice and rather of purchasing a hamburger he buys a grilled chicken sandwich.
The technology resembles the retail sector when you stroll into the store and they currently know your habits. There is a trigger to create an action which ideally relates to a sale. Healthcare has to move towards this culture of living in an on demand world where we can anticipate or convince a habits by the patient.
Majority of healthcare providers are still concentrated on their internal operations leveraging EMR data and we have actually not focused on the digital consumer yet.It can be an obstacle. There are a great deal of great work being assembled by enterprise vendors and doctor, however as we move down the trip of handling population health we can actually learn from the other verticals and how they leverage the big data technology to improve consumer/patient engagement. All this will ultimately result in a healthier population.
