Analytics is one of next great frontiers in healthcare, but how can this enormous concept be applied to impact patient care at the time of service, or even before?
At the Becker's Hospital Review 6th Annual Meeting, two leaders with The University of Chicago Medicine shared how predictive and real-time analytics tools already have the power to affect care in this way. "I am finally hopeful to impact things at the frontline with analytics," said Michael Howell, MD, MPH, associate chief medical officer for clinical quality, The University of Chicago Medicine
1. Defining goals. Analytics can be applied to nearly any aspect of healthcare; the possibilities are endless. But, without a targeted approach the chances of making a true difference at the patient care level are slim. "We work IT for the benefit of our patients and their families," said Eric Yablonka, vice president and CIO of The University of Chicago Medicine. The main goal of any analytics tool is to generate data, become integrated into the larger system of IT and ultimately drive improvements in patient safety, care, engagement and satisfaction.
2. Laying the groundwork. The University of Chicago Medicine put years of data and analytics capabilities to work and created a predictive model that gives an eight hour warning before a patient goes into cardiac arrest, according to Dr. Howell. "We launched a collaboration with our leaders, driven by business strategies for informatics and analytics needs," said Mr. Yablonka.
This predictive model has the capability to drive and shape patient care, and it is only the beginning. This model could be tweaked with different sets of data to predict many other health events, such as renal failure.
3. Looking ahead. While this prediction algorithm for cardiac arrest is alone impressive, Dr. Howell and Mr. Yablonka are already looking to the future. Analytics will eventually be tied together to impact:
• Patient outcomes
• Patient throughput
• Clinical trials
• Revenue cycle
• Total cost of care
"We need to turn big data into fast data and make it accessible," said Mr. Yablonka.