It has been said that “data” is the new “oil” of the 21st century. That is certainly true in healthcare where a unique opportunity exists to leverage data – as fuel for better health outcomes. Everything that happens with our health is documented … initially, this was on paper … and more recently, in the form of electronic medical records.
Electronic Medical Records
Despite billions of incentive dollars being dolled out by the federal government to purchase Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems and use them in meaningful ways, there continues to be significant dissatisfaction with these systems.
In a recent Black Book Rankings survey, 80% surveyed claim their EMR solution does not meet the practice’s individual needs. This is consistent with my own observations, where many express frustrations that “the information goes in … but rarely if ever, comes out”.
If the information never comes out, or it’s too hard to access, are we really maximizing its value?
The Context of Data
It all boils down to our ability to leverage years and years of longitudinal patient population data to surface currently hidden insights … and put those insights to work to improve care. It’s incredibly powerful to combine years of clinical patient population data (longitudinal patient histories) with other types of data such as social and lifestyle factors to surface new trends, patterns, anomalies and deviations. These complex medical relationships (or context) trapped in the data are the key to identifying new ways to achieve better health outcomes. Some organizations are already empowering physicians with these new insights.
Context can be critical in a lot of situations—but in healthcare, especially, it can be the difference between preventing hospital readmission and not. It’s not enough, for example, to know that a patient has diabetes and smokes a pack of cigarettes each week. These factors are only part of the whole picture. Does she live on her own, with family or in a care facility? Does she have a knee injury that prevents her from an active exercise program? Has she been treated for any other illnesses recently? Did she experience a recent life-changing event, such as moving homes, getting a new job or having a baby? Is she able to cook meals for herself, does she rely on someone else to cook, or does she frequent cafeterias, restaurants or take-out windows?
All of these things and more can—and should—influence a patient’s care plan because these are the factors that help determine which treatments will be most successful for each individual. And as our population grows and ages, a greater focus on individual wellness and increasing economic pressures are forcing providers, insurers, individuals and government agencies to find new ways to optimize healthcare outcomes while controlling costs.
Personalized Care
Today’s data-driven healthcare environment provides the raw materials (or “oil”) to fuel this kind of personalized care, and make it cost-effective as well. But it takes savvy analysis to turn that data into the kind of reports and recommendations providers, patients and communities need to make informed decisions.
The good news: IBM is uniquely positioned to help organizations and individuals achieve these goals. The IBM® Smarter Care initiative draws on a comprehensive portfolio of advanced IBM technologies and services to help generate new patient insights that can improve the quality of care; facilitate collaboration among organizations, patients, government agencies and other groups; and promote wellness through a range of public health and social programs.
IBM Patient Care and Insights is a key component of the Smarter Care initiative. By incorporating advanced analytics with care management capabilities, Patient Care and Insights can produce valuable insights and enable holistic, individualized care.
Advanced Analytics: Leading the way to Smarter Care
Several leading healthcare organizations are already on the path to Smarter Care and demonstrating the real-world benefits of advanced analytics from IBM. For example, in St. Louis, Missouri, BJC HealthCare—one of the largest nonprofit healthcare systems in the United States—is using natural language processing (NLP) and content analytics capabilities from IBM to extract information from patient records that are valuable for clinical research.
By tapping into unstructured data, such as text-based doctor's notes, BJC HealthCare is surfacing important social factors, demographic information and behavioral patterns that would otherwise be hidden from researchers.
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
BJC HealthCare is also using IBM technologies to reduce hospital readmissions for chronic heart failure (CHF). The organization is analyzing clinical data such as ejection fraction metrics (which represent the volume of blood pumped out of the heart with each beat) to better predict which patients are most likely to be readmitted. These insights enable providers to implement tailored interventions that can avoid some readmissions.
The University of North Carolina (UNC) Health Care is using Patient Care and Insights for three new pilot projects. First, UNC is employing NLP and content analytics on free-text clinical notes to discover predictors of hospital readmission, identify patients at risk and improve pre-admission prediction models.
UNC is also using IBM technology to empower patients. IBM NLP technology is helping to transform clinical data contained in electronic medical records (EMRs) into a format that can be presented to patients through an easy-to-use portal. Streamlined access to information will help patients make more informed decisions and encourage deeper participation in their own care.
Finally, UNC is using NLP to help generate alerts and reminders for physicians. With NLP, the organization is extracting key unstructured data from EMRs, such as abnormal cancer test results, and then storing this data in a structured form within a data warehouse. The structured data can then be used to produce alerts for prompt follow-up care.
This is just the beginning. As organizations continue to launch new projects that capitalize on advanced analytics, case management and other technologies from IBM, we expect to see some very innovative approaches to delivering Smarter Care.
Learn more about IBM Smarter Care by visiting:
For more about IBM Patient Care and Insights, visit:
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