The shift to value-based care has increased the need for health systems to realize the total economic impact across their patient care continuum, including the value of their pharmaceutical and medical supply spend.
Additionally, recent legislative and policy actions – particularly the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) - will help enable the nationwide exchange of Electronic Health Information (EHI). These actions further support the role of value-based care delivery and pave the way for better data analytics and decision support.
Fuse by Cardinal Health, an innovative engine, is working to create better support solutions for health systems. Here Mike Alvarez, head of Digital Services at Fuse, shares insights on the evolution of data analytics, what’s next for the industry, and what health systems need to know.
Q: To start, how can the use of data analytics and decision support impact patient care?
Alvarez: As the industry shifts to value-based care, healthcare providers need actionable insights to make informed clinical decisions, manage patient populations and maximize clinical outcomes. Data analytics and decision support can provide more meaningful insights and predictive indicators that will increase speed and accuracy for these clinical decisions that positively impact the overall health and wellbeing of their patients.
Healthcare systems have a very important lens into the overall healthcare value chain with rich information about patients and providers, but generally lack visibility into earlier dependencies in the supply chain such as distribution and manufacturing. This can impact their ability to administer care at a predictable price. Healthcare systems can work with companies like Cardinal Health who can provide more of a comprehensive, 360-degree view because of their unique position in the healthcare value chain.
Last, data and analytics support can help providers with the adoption of value-based care by helping them optimize their medical and pharmaceutical spend, as well as benchmark them against the highest performing care settings. As more care is delivered at home, these tools can ensure the same high care standards are maintained in the home setting, at a lower overall cost. At Cardinal Health, we have products that can predict patients’ adherence to their medications and programs to help providers understand what intervention method is most effective for that specific patient or cluster of patients. The patients benefit by living healthier lives, guided by data, and we can begin to lower the cost of care over time.
Q: What recent advancements have been made in data analytics that can support patient outcomes? How do you anticipate these advancements will evolve moving forward?
Alvarez: Data analytics has been around for decades but, like all technology, is changing more rapidly than ever in this technological age. With the advancement in data science, we are seeing opportunities across the care continuum to make digital health products and services more intelligent and prescriptive. Artificial intelligence and machine learning is being embedded into products and services to get patients on life-saving medications as quickly as possible and ensure hospital systems optimize their drug spend.
The change I am most excited about currently is the decentralization of data analytics, which is part operating model, part technology, and part mindset shift in how to deliver data to different stakeholders. Traditional data platforms have centralized control and generally look at data as a by-product rather than a product that can be enhanced and leveraged to build other products and services. We are building a decentralized data platform that puts control in the hands of the teams closest to the customer because we believe this is where problems are best solved. Unlocking multiple teams to solve problems in the healthcare space is a key differentiator in our approach and one that is gaining steam and delivering value even though we are early in our journey. I believe you will see more and more companies moving to approaches like this.
Q: What do those advancements mean for health systems?
Alvarez: Health systems can benefit from partnering with companies who have embraced data analytics and cooperatively deliver insights that add value to multiple personas across the care continuum. Integrating solutions into clinical workflows can lead to identifying and remediating patient risk more rapidly and surfacing actions to be taken to ensure the best care for the patient. You can think of this as the “digital encounter” being combined with the physical encounter within the healthcare setting which gives a more robust 360 view of a patient and their risk.
Q: What’s next in this area and how should health systems prepare?
Alvarez: Technology adoption and investment is not slowing down. Investments in HealthTech increased exponentially* in 2020 and 2021, spurned by the global pandemic and by available capital wanting to invest in life-changing ideas and products. Health systems can prepare by elevating their digital literacy and looking for opportunities to eliminate waste in the supply chain, increase time spent with patients, and adopt new digital operating models. There are many software solutions in the marketplace to help health systems monitor and optimize spend but it’s essential to work with technology partners who understand the health care setting end to end, as well as offer interconnected solutions that can be acquired based on value and need. This understanding and empathy of the providers’ experience ensures health systems will receive not only robust data and insights, but also valuable recommendations on the key actions they can take each day to drive meaningful change for their hospital and patients.
Q: What is Cardinal Health doing to support patient outcomes with data analytics?
Alvarez: Cardinal Health is investing in a decentralized data platform and digital health products that will bring insights to the market more rapidly , such as Navista™ Tech Solutions in the community oncology space and our Reimbursement Solution that helps hospitals identify drivers of lost revenue and coordinate programs for patient financial support.
We are also investing in a data analytics and decision support tool across the patient care continuum that will enable healthcare providers to better understand the value of their pharmaceutical and medical supply spend.
Cardinal Health is uniquely positioned to do this work by aligning our existing breadth and depth of products and services in a more meaningful and connected way for our customers and the patients they serve. We’ll do this through greater digital connectivity across our enterprise--connecting many of data analytics tools already deployed--in conjunction with direct connectivity with our customers. Ultimately, this will provide more meaningful insights and predictive indicators that will increase speed and accuracy for decisions that can positively impact patient outcomes, economics, at-risk patient populations, and more.
Last, we will continue to build solutions that allow healthcare providers to focus more time on treating patients and patient outcomes rather than focusing on availability and cost of drugs or medical devices.
To learn more about Fuse by Cardinal Health and its mission to reimagine healthcare, visit cardinalhealth.com/Fuse.
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