How Artificial Intelligence Can Overcome Healthcare Data Security Challenges and Improve Patient Trust

As healthcare organizations today face more security threats than ever, artificial intelligence (AI) combined with human judgment is emerging as the perfect pair to improve healthcare data security. Together, they power a highly accurate privacy analytics model that allows organizations to review access points to patient data and detect when a system’s EHR is potentially exposed to a privacy violation, attack, or breach. With specific techniques, including supervised and unsupervised machine learning and transparent AI methods, health systems can advance toward more predictive, analytics-based, collaborative privacy analytics infrastructures that safeguard patient privacy.

The 2019 Healthcare Analytics Summit: Thursday Recap

HAS attendees are accustomed to innovation and projections for the future of digital health. But on the final day of HAS 19, they met the next generation of transformation in person: teenager Justin Aronson presented a keynote on how data democratization will empower him and his peers to solve the challenges of coming decades. Other keynotes—Google’s Marianne Slight, former Bayer CDO Jessica Federer, and Beth Israel Deaconess System CIO Dr. John Halamka—contributed their visions for healthcare’s next era, and presenters in 20 breakout sessions shared the experiences, processes, and technologies that will carry digital transformation forward.

The 2019 Healthcare Analytics Summit: Wednesday Recap

The first full day of the 2019 Healthcare Analytics Summit (HAS 19) featured keynotes from Thomas Jefferson University CEO Dr. Steve Klesko, best-selling author Daniel Pink, former New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram, and President of MDLIVE Medical Group Dr. Lyle Berkowitz. Two waves of breakout sessions covered success stories from organizations around the country and their journeys to transformation through further digitization.

Weekly News Roundup: September 6, 2019

Today's healthcare CIOs risk becoming marginalized from other members of their organization’s leadership when they focus too narrowly on technology and don’t engage with their peers’ strategic goals. This week's news roundup is about what the new healthcare CIO looks like: the new pressures and opportunities they face; five questions to improve strategic engagement; and, tough AI questions with surprisingly simple answers.

Improving Strategic Engagement for Healthcare CIOs with Five Key Questions

A healthcare CIO’s role can demand such an intense focus on technology that IT leaders may struggle to find natural opportunities to engage with their C-suite peers in non-technical conversations. To bridge the gap, healthcare CIOs can answer five fundamental questions to better align their programs with organizational strategic goals and guide IT services to their full potential:

1. Whom do we serve?
2. What services do we provide?
3. How do we know we are doing a great job?
4. How do we provide the services?
5. How do we organize?

Machine Learning and Feature Selection for Population Health

Christiana Care Health System (CCHS) had used a machine learning model to inform population segmentation. The initial model used “black box” algorithms to predict risk that care managers didn’t have input on or understand. CCHS leaders and experts wanted an efficient model that they understood and trusted to predict 90-day inpatient admission. CCHS used a feature selection process to build the simplest model possible—and AI insight tools for selecting the best model, setting triggers for action, and explaining how the model worked.

Analytics-Driven Clinical Documentation Improvement Efforts Positively Impact Reimbursement

Albany Med’s clinical documentation improvement specialists provide high-quality care to complex, acute-care patients; however, Albany Med was experiencing lower reimbursement rates due to gaps in clinical documentation. The organization created a seamless process for clinical documentation with the use of an analytics application as driven by clinical leadership.

Weekly News Roundup: August 29, 2019

As value-based care continues to grow, driving innovations and new risk arrangements, population health remains a high priority. In this week's news roundup: why the right tools matter for succeeding in population health management; uniting social determinants of health and data for population health; and how adult population health is being effectively addressed in pediatric settings.

Medically Integrated Wellness Program Reduces Modifiable Risk Factors

Thibodaux Regional Medical Center conducted a community health needs assessment (CHNA) as part of its vision for a healthier community. The CHNA reinforced the hospital’s identified need for a data-driven, medically integrated wellness program designed to benefit the health of the community by educating, advocating, and supporting healthy lifestyle changes to address modifiable health risks. Using a wellness analytics application, Thibodaux Regional is able to track program outcomes.

Succeeding in Population Health Management: Why the Right Tools Matter

The U.S. healthcare market projects that by 2022 90 million Americans will be in an ACO. The upward trend in population health management (PHM) makes the move towards risk-based contracts increasingly urgent for health systems. The industry has been largely unprepared for the shift, as it hasn’t established a clear definition of population health or solid guidelines on transitioning from volume to value. Organizations can, however, prepare for the demands of PHM by adopting a solution that manages comprehensive population health data, provides advanced analytics from new and complex challenges, and connects them with the deep expertise to thrive in a value-based landscape.

Data-Driven Evidence-Based Practices Reduce Clostridioides Difficile Infections

To improve the care of patients with Clostridioides difficile (C. diff), Thibodaux Regional Medical Center used data and analytics to monitor completion of early recognition screening, protocol compliance, antimicrobial stewardship rounds, and probiotic administration. Thibodaux Regional’s leadership, culture, evidence-based practices, and data-driven improvement approach have positively impacted its patients.

Succeeding in Population Health Management: Why the Right Tools Matter

The U.S. healthcare market projects that by 2022 90 million Americans will be in an ACO. The upward trend in population health management (PHM) makes the move towards risk-based contracts increasingly urgent for health systems. The industry has been largely unprepared for the shift, as it hasn’t established a clear definition of population health or solid guidelines on transitioning from volume to value. Organizations can, however, prepare for the demands of PHM by adopting a solution that manages comprehensive population health data, provides advanced analytics from new and complex challenges, and connects them with the deep expertise to thrive in a value-based landscape.

Widespread Data Utilization Ensures Continuous Data-Driven Improvement

To ensure it continues the widespread use of data and analytics, Allina Health needed a plan to ensure ongoing data utilization and continuous, data-driven improvement, increasing the number of people learning from the valuable data in its data platform. By leveraging an advanced data platform and a robust suite of analytics accelerators, the health system observed significant improvements.

Improved Data Access Drives Effective Care Delivery

Texas Children’s Hospital knew that improving data access was key to driving improvements and sought to improve analytics adoption and democratize its data. By focusing on developing a culture of data access and sharing, Texas Children’s has shifted its data and analytics culture, establishing the foundation required for it to continue to advance its analytics adoption, including engaging in predictive analytics. Leaders and employees are actively investigating and sharing data, and operations are more data-driven than ever before.

Integrated Analytics Shows True Cost of Patient Care

To gain more efficient access to data that could reduce unwarranted variation and reduce costs, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health (D-HH) leveraged a data platform to automate analysis of its financial data. D-HH has substantially improved its ability to use clinical, operational, and financial data to perform opportunity analysis, decrease unwarranted variation, and decrease costs.

Weekly News Roundup: August 23, 2019

In this week's news roundup: six need-to-know guidelines for successful care management; the three must-have qualities of a care management system; and why skilled nursing facilities need to stop thinking of themselves as targets for cuts, and get creative.

Data-Driven Labor Management Delivers Financial and Operational Improvements

Managing and retaining a talented workforce represents approximately 60 percent of hospital costs. In an effort to improve staffing efficiency, Hawai‘i Pacific Health (HPH) sought to realign its staffing practices to better manage and predict its labor needs. Utilizing its data platform and analytics, HPH was able to forecast its workforce needs and effectively manage staff schedules—two changes that led to significant cost savings.

Six Need-to-Know Guidelines for Successful Care Management

In a job that changes every minute, care managers don’t have much time to think as they tackle unpredictable situations. Care managers stay on track amid the distractions by following six key elements of successful care management:

1. Act as an advocate for the patient.
2. Practice cultural competence.
3. Garner support from leaders.
4. Develop effective communication skills.
5. Prioritize patients based on up-to-date data.
6. Don’t ever forget that the patient is a human being first.

As care managers practice these six crucial components for successful care management, the patient’s health and well-being will always be the top priority for everyone involved, which translates to better outcomes and lower costs.

Accurate Provider Metrics Leads to Improved Processes and Time Savings for Analysts

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health (D-HH) was committed to improving its provider performance reporting method so that providers could easily access their performance data and deliver better care to patients. With the right analytics, D-HH was able to implement an affordable solution and reduce the manual reporting required by its financial analysts.

Data-Driven Approach Improves Evidence-Based Trauma Care

Mission Health trauma services provide evidence-based care. Despite its efforts to measure the impact of this care on outcomes, the overwhelming burden of manual data review limited its ability to effectively monitor key process measures in a timely manner. This prompted Mission to use data and analytics for timely insights into injury-specific process measure performance and concurrent chart review to improve trauma care.