New IBM center tackles analytics to improve health care

Earlier this month, IBM announced the launch of its Health Analytics Solution Center in Dallas, signaling the next step the company is taking to focus on using concrete numbers to look at trends and determine best practices for health care providers.

The center is part of a global network of solution centers that make use of analytics in order to increase efficiency, and this health-centered group is expected to contribute toward an increasing reliance on analytics as health care moves into the future.

By combining data from health care systems throughout the nation, and also by looking at data in individualized areas, health professionals can use the center to evaluate trends in health care, “whether it’s examining outcomes from a certain procedure or drug or looking at efficacy of different types of insurance,” said Adam Crafton, partner in IBM’s Business Analytic and Optimization practice.

Health analytics, or assessing data about patients — while still protecting all identifying information about the patients — in order to see trends regarding quality assessment and to plan for future procedures, has gained momentum as health professionals have learned that just doing something by gut feeling or by tradition doesn’t always lead to the best outcomes.

Crafton said up to this point, health analytics has been retrospective, requiring a slow analysis of numbers to see changes over periods of time in the past. However, he said the new center would be pushing the envelope because it would offer near real-time results; an analysis could be done more quickly, meaning health care providers can be more agile, changing treatment plans to optimize patient outcomes.

Dr. Anita Kurian, who holds a doctoral degree in clinical research and a medical degree, is the epidemiology division manager and chief epidemiologist at Tarrant County Public Health and said mining health data has a range of applications for the changing health care landscape.

“In my opinion, health-related data or ‘numbers’ are important because they enable us to monitor trends in health status, identify health problems, identify needed prevention targets, provide important information for making changes in public policies and programs, and last but not least, provide vital information for evaluating the impact of health policies and programs,” she said.

Crafton said IBM has been working on related issues for some time with tools like Cognos, the company’s business intelligence and performance management software, and other analytic programs. On the client hospital or health system side, IBM can work with most electronic medical record or patient systems that are already in place, gathering information about patients.

Of course, all information about patients falls under federal guidelines regarding confidentiality. IBM also declined to specify how many clients it had, but one local client that agreed to talk about its relationship with IBM and its new center is the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council.

Steve Love, president and CEO of the council, said the group has had a relationship with IBM for several years to track trends and changes within its membership. Not only does the foundation use analytics, but individual hospitals do as well, he said.

He said the focus on best practices, the most effective use of resources and best patient outcomes are all going to become increasingly tied to health analytics in the future.

“It’s going to be something all providers and people in the health care industry are going to have to have a handle on to be a part of the future,” Love said.

Analytics also will play a role in coordinating care, Love said, which is something the DFWHC has focused on with its newly-created regional enterprise Master Patient Index, which it has been working on for two years and has just finished beta testing. Member hospitals can track patients through the foundation, meaning a patient’s records can be accessed if he or she is admitted to any member hospital, eliminating redundancy or errors in care, Love said.

Crafton said analytics will be the extra edge to give providers and systems a way to better their patient care.

“Analytics are really a key differentiator in being successful and driving value,” he said.

The Health Analytics Solution Center in Dallas is in the IBM Global Solution Center there and has about 100 people with various backgrounds, from former health care workers and managers to research and technical personnel, in order to work with clients to analyze data to answer questions about care.

While IBM as a company is focusing on analytics to help all sorts of businesses, Crafton said this center stands out because it can make differences in care and, ultimately, a patient’s health.

“We can make a difference,” he said.