Why Healthcare Data Analytics?

Since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (i.e., the Affordable Care Act, ACA, or “Obamacare”) was signed into law in early 2010, the healthcare industry has been undergoing significant structural and disruptive change that has rippled across every conceivable touchpoint of care, delivery, and access.

Not surprisingly, the rapidity of change has also necessitated further integration with, and reliance on, technology to meet new regulatory requirements, reimbursement goals, and marketplace competition. Data, and more specifically “healthcare data analytics” is one of the most valuable resources being tapped.

Also referred to as “clinical data analytics,” healthcare data analytics (HDA) involves the process of sifting through data sets to discern actionable insights. A key source of HDA comes from EHR’s and billing data. These insights can then be used to improve clinical, operational, and financial outcomes – most commonly understood within the context of population health management.

Population Health Management

The discipline of population health management studies and facilitates care delivery across groups. These groups can range in size from larger than the general population of the United States, to a small cohort of patients each taking the same medication or displaying a similar set of behavioral characteristics, and so on. Despite the myriad populations available for study and care facilitation, there is a singular purpose underlying nearly all PHM initiatives, and that is to provide tailored care delivery based on analytical insights.

More than 90% of hospital and physician financial executives are actively seeking ways to
link patient care with analytics and outcomes to support the shift to healthcare consumerism.[1]

In addition to tailored care delivery, another common goal for PHM (and those organization’s utilizing the methodology) is to provide that care efficiently and effectively. This can often be achieved by integrating the clinical data with claims-based data (i.e., linking health outcomes with financial outcomes).
To achieve these objectives, organizations seek to hire internal expertise or contract external resources. Data Analysts and Data Scientists represent two of the more popular roles sought by organizations today.

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[1] Black Book Research. http://www.blackbookmarketresearch.com