Transforming Healthcare Analytics

Real-life examples of how to apply intelligence in the healthcare industry through innovative analytics

Healthcare analytics offers intelligence for making better healthcare decisions. Identifying patterns and correlations contained in complex health data, analytics has applications in hospital management, patient records, diagnosis, operating and treatment costs, and more. Helping healthcare managers operate more efficiently and effectively.

Transforming Healthcare Analytics: The Quest for Healthy Intelligence shares real-world use cases of a healthcare company that leverages people, process, and advanced analytics technology to deliver exemplary results.

This book illustrates how healthcare professionals can transform the healthcare industry through analytics. Practical examples of modern techniques and technology show how unified analytics with data management can deliver insight-driven decisions. The authors—a data management and analytics specialist and a healthcare finance executive—share their unique perspectives on modernizing data and analytics platforms to alleviate the complexity of the healthcare, distributing capabilities and analytics to key stakeholders, equipping healthcare organizations with intelligence to prepare for the future, and more. This book:

• Explores innovative technologies to overcome data complexity in healthcare
• Highlights how analytics can help with healthcare market analysis to gain competitive advantage
• Provides strategies for building a strong foundation for healthcare intelligence
• Examines managing data and analytics from end-to-end, from diagnosis, to treatment, to provider payment
• Discusses the future of technology and focus areas in the healthcare industry

Transforming Healthcare Analytics: The Quest for Healthy Intelligence is an important source of information for CFO’s, CIO, CTO, healthcare managers, data scientists, statisticians, and financial analysts at healthcare institutions.

About the Authors xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Foreword xvii

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

Chapter 2 People 33

Chapter 3 Process 87

Chapter 4 Technology 125

Chapter 5 Unifying People, Process, and Technology 161

Chapter 6 The Future in Healthcare 197

Chapter 7 Final Thoughts 231

Index 253

MICHAEL N. LEWIS is Senior Director of Enterprise Analytics at Cleveland Clinic. He directs an industry-leading, cross-functional team to promote the design, implementation, and monitoring of innovative solutions to drive fact-based decision making for planning, management, measurement, and learning.

THO H. NGUYEN is an author, a data and analytics adviser, and a technology enthusiast delivering value-added business solutions with emphasis on increasing economics, governance, and performance. With over 20 years in leadership roles, he has extensive experience in management, an active speaker on analytic and data management topics, a philanthropist who believes in "paying it forward," and a community leader and volunteer promoting inclusion and diversity.

The healthcare industry continues to face challenges in reducing costs and improving outcomes. Although healthcare is improving, many problems remain: longer wait times, shorter patient time with doctors, and redundant processes for each point of contact, to name but a few. Clinicians have become data clerks—their notes inadequately captured and communicated within the healthcare ecosystem. Healthcare data is overwhelming practitioners to such a degree that they are unable to fully review, correctly diagnose, and provide treatment for ailments in a timely manner. Innovative analytical technologies addressing such problems in healthcare are readily available, yet they are often not implemented or considered viable solutions in many instances. Transforming Healthcare Analytics: The Quest for Healthy Intelligence explains how healthcare professionals can transform their industry by integrating technology with people and process to gain operational and strategic intelligence. The text considers the future of healthcare in the context of digital transformation with cloud, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

Presenting unique insights based on their respective backgrounds in finance and in technology, authors Michael N. Lewis and Tho H. Nguyen offer real-world cases of healthcare problems addressed by insight-driven decisions while emphasizing the importance of people, process, and technology. The authors first highlight critical analytical and business skills, the need to recruit, train, and organize analytic talent, ways to change sponsorship culture, and the pressing issues that could be solved with current and emerging technologies. Subsequent chapters cover topics including the three core elements of process, the business problem of healthcare, how analytics can improve decision-making, process change within an organization, and the need for creating a repeatable, sustainable playbook based on data-driven insights. A complete overview of available technology is followed by a practical, actionable framework for developing a comprehensive analytics strategy.

Improving an organization through data analytics requires assembling cross-functional teams, providing clear leadership, fostering analytic talent throughout organizations, and applying available technologies effectively and efficiently. Designed for decision makers, analysts, and healthcare professionals, Transforming Healthcare Analytics: The Quest for Healthy Intelligence is an important resource for understanding how technology—coupled with people and process—is leading the way to the digital transformation in healthcare.

PRAISE FOR TRANSFORMING HEALTHCARE ANALYTICS

"This book summarizes many core analytical concepts and how to apply those concepts to the healthcare space. There are a lot of healthcare analytics examples throughout that are both informative and also illustrative of how healthcare professionals can take action to apply the book's concepts in their real-world healthcare settings."
BILL FRANKS, Chief Analytics Officer, International Institute for Analytics

"Every industry and company will be impacted by digital transformation, and the healthcare industry is no different. At the heart of digital transformation is data. However, the value opportunity from data flowing through 'smart' systems and analytical models will not be achieved without strong processes and digitally competent people. The authors provide several examples that highlight the importance of people, process, technology, and data in a digitally transformed healthcare setting."
KEVIN BETSER, Director, Data Analytics, Steelcase

"From Michael N. Lewis and Tho H. Nguyen's collaboration comes a rich and practical guide for healthcare professionals and administrators to unlock the power of people, process, and technology to address pressing healthcare challenges and innovate to lift healthcare outcomes for providers and consumers alike."
JAGDIP SINGH, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University

"Michael N. Lewis and Tho H. Nguyen make the compelling case that pairing traditional analytic capabilities with equally important 'soft' skills is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have. They provide a practical framework to identify, understand, and develop these difficult-to-define skills that are just as applicable to banking as they are to healthcare."
KATHLEEN MALEY, Head of Consumer and Digital Analytics, Keybank