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Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC was the first pediatric hospital in the U.S. to achieve Stage 7 recognition from HIMSS. Leveraging data analytics has been a significant initiative and commitment of time, said Srinivasan Suresh, MD, the hospital's chief medical information officer. "We don't just see it as another tool," he said. "It's not just an IT buzzword; it's about improving care." The hospital utilizes multiple advanced analytics tools. One of them is a customized tool based on the Rothman Index, which uses an algorithm to generate an early warning sign indicator. The software pulls data from the Cerner EMR (including nursing assessments, which are textual) and translates it into a 'Rothman score' that ranges from 0-100, presented with graphs that track trends throughout admission. >> SPECIAL REPORT NEXT STEP: Quality and depth important to develop predictive analytics solutions Providers can predict when certain patients may need a transfer to the intensive care unit. According to Suresh, the original model was only effective for adults. So Children's, with help from clinical surveillance vendor PeraHealth, co-developed a model specifically for children, by adjusting the variables based on age-based differences. "The biggest overarching outcome is to eliminate avoidable harm," he said. IT plays a big and meaningful part in improving care outcomes. We apply IT to reduce operational costs, improve system efficiencies, better understand workflow and reduce avoidable readmissions." The team spent the last two years extensively testing the pediatric Rothman Index, or pRI, before it went live in November 2015. Although the lead-up time was long, it was important to ensure the value that the new score would provide to patients and clinicians, Suresh said: "The biggest challenge to implementation is time." The pRI is a dynamic tool that is now available for every acute care patient in the hospital. According to Suresh, another key aspect of a successful go-live is physician buy-in. "It's a critical part of implementation," he said. "I want physicians and nurses to ask me lots of questions. That really helps me to serve their needs better. Learn more at the Healthcare IT News Big Data and Healthcare Analytics Forum in San Francisco, June 14-15, 2016. Register here. "I have a great team," he said. "When dealing with large amounts of data, it is the skill sets of the team members and the teamwork that help generate success." As part of building their analytics platform, Children’s established a separate Data Warehouse team within their IT set-up. This helped to streamline data requests from clinicians and administrators, and also with the data mining projects. "Advanced analytics is an absolute need," said Suresh. "It's an investment in time and resources. Although you may not see results early on, over time it reduces costs, length of stay and morbidity. … It's important to keep focused on the long-term outcomes." The Healthcare IT News Special Report: Bridging the big data-analytics gap Data-Analytics Gap: How real-time strategies can improve care quality and efficiency Case Study: St. Joseph Healthcare sees dramatic improvement serving high-risk population with HealthInfoNet Case Study:  UnityPoint Health connects providers and hospitals with predictive analytics to improve patient care Next Step: Quality and depth important to develop predictive analytics solutions

Harnessing analytics has led to big gains for Maine-based health system to dramatically reduce readmissions, identify high-risk patients and utilize real-time data.

The analytics startup’s research also found that less than one quarter will reach the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services goal by 2019, a year after CMS anticipates half of payments to be value-based.

There are two major roadblocks for analytics in healthcare, says Sriram Vishwanath, professor of engineering and data science at University of Texas, Austin. They have to do with two different mindsets: "the analytics is a commodity" and "it's my data and I won't share." In the "commodity" mindset, providers feel pressured to join the other organizations with analytics in place and rush out to hire low-cost engineers to create an analytics system. But according to Vishwanath, "this mindset is dangerous, as it leads to a lot of sub-standard dashboards all being paraded around as predictive analytics solutions. "Analytics isn't just putting together a bunch of engineers," he added. "Quality, team-skill, years of experience and depth of understanding the matter. It's important to recognize that analytics should be done right the first time, by working with an exceptional, high-quality team of PhDs." With the "I won't share" mindset, meanwhile, data is seen as a precious commodity, and providers find it painful to let go of their data. This mentality is a common complaint, he said, but it's "gradually changing – albeit at a glacial pace." It's important for all entities involved in healthcare to work together. Not just institutions as a whole, but also within an organization, from the MDs to the C-suite. "Working together is critical here, to accept that neither side knows it all and must learn from the other," said CHP's Suresh. Other hurdles to overcome include bridging the gap between the providers who feel analytics are an overwhelming waste of time and the vendors who press that analytics are a fix-all solution for every problem. Neither of these extremes is true, said Suresh. "Predictions can never be 100 percent accurate. If they were 100 percent accurate, one would call it a fact, not a prediction," he said. "Is it right 9 out of 10 times? Well, then you have a great predictive engine in your hands. Healthcare predictions are meant to supplement, support and guide and can never be 100 percent accurate." Learn more at the Healthcare IT News Big Data and Healthcare Analytics Forum in San Francisco, June 14-15, 2016. Register here. "Healthcare has a long journey in finding true value from analytics," he added. "There's tremendous value for healthcare from analytics when analytics is done right. Healthcare analytics will, someday, change the way we manage care. This is not an if, it's a when." To accomplish this task all stakeholders must be on the same page. For Vishwanath, those organizations attempting to leverage analytics must lean on professional vendors with established platforms in place and come prepared with goals. Analytics tools are only effective when they are designed to meet a specific need within an organization. "If the vendor can prove its accuracy and does so with relative ease, put them on your target list," Vishwanath said. "If they obfuscate with lots of buzzwords, walk away." The Healthcare IT News Special Report: Bridging the big data-analytics gap Data-Analytics Gap: How real-time strategies can improve care quality and efficiency Case Study: St. Joseph Healthcare sees dramatic improvement serving high-risk population with HealthInfoNet Case Study:  UnityPoint Health connects providers and hospitals with predictive analytics to improve patient care Case Study: Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh develops customized prediction indicator for children with PeriHealth

Fewer than half of healthcare organizations participating in a recent survey are currently using C&BI tools. But HIMSS Analytics anticipates that the shift to value-based care and advances in predictive and prescriptive analytics technologies could change that in the near-term.

In 2015, Providence, RI-based Lifespan conducted what was, at the time, the largest “big bang” implementation of Epic’s electronic health record (EHR). The health system wanted to consolidate the multiple EHRs that resided across its five hospitals and more than 100 ambulatory facilities to a single EHR. The goal was to eliminate a significant pain point. Physicians roaming from their practice locations to the hospital were unable to use a Web browser to access patient records from their EHRs, according to Tom Kane, Lifespan’s manager of client server engineering and Epic. The secondary goal was to consolidate all the data from the existing EHRs into the single EHR to create one for each patient. In order to accomplish these goals, Tom pointed out, “We had to build a comprehensive record highly available and redundant infrastructure,” which would improve clinician workflow and therefore be sure to have a high adoption rate. One of the first exercises Tom and his coworkers conducted was to reach out to the physicians and clinicians to hear their complaints and determine their needs. One physician who was working from home related that his son had upgraded his computer’s Explorer browser, which disabled the clinical apps he was using for work. “Our biggest challenge and goal was: how can we provide a streamlined single point of access, regardless of the device a clinician has or where he is physically located?” Tom concluded. “That’s the challenge we tried to overcome.” Lifespan implemented a host of solutions – including Citrix’s XenApp, XenDesktop and NetScaler; PVS web interface servers; x86 server technology; and Imprivata’s single sign-on solution – to enhance its EHR and the user experience for its more than 6,000 users. A “big win” for the health system was to have the technology in place to be able to support the out-of-network physicians (not employed by Lifespan) but who have patients presenting at a Lifespan facility. These clinicians need secure access to the Epic EHR. Another big win was enabling LifeSpan’s clinical staff to use their badges at any of the Lifespan hospitals to securely access patient information without the use of a keyboard. “I actually saw two doctors smile,” Tom noted as he described the capability. “That actually happened.” Along the way, Tom and his team developed best practices for Lifespan’s big-bang implementation: Establish a relationship with all application owners in the organization – Know what changes have been made by application owners before go-live Build a team that wants to make a difference – Take note of and support the team members who are engaged with the initiative Work directly with your partners and vendors – Treat them as part of your team and part of your command Center, and not as vendors Establish an off-site command Center for go-live – Have a dedicated team comprising vendors, engineers, application developers, C-suite executives and IT staff that will work around the clock for two weeks to address issues in a timely manner Don’t underestimate the dress rehearsal for go-live – You will uncover devices and applications that you didn’t know existed, such as printers, which leads to the next best practice Build in capacity for upgrades and servers for failovers With a dedicated, engaged team and the right technology in place, Lifespan met its goal of providing workplace flexibility for its clinicians and physicians and, as a result, better value for its patients.  

The research and advocacy group is calling upon data scientists and computational analysts to leverage its database to expand understanding of the disease.

The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs formally removed three senior officials on Wednesday and said doing so sets the stage for moving forward. 

The first rebid for durable medical equipment such as orthotics and prosthetics reduced the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services budget by $580 million. The second phase cut it by $3.6 billion. 

Healthcare organizations can better prepare for – and respond faster to – new and emerging cyber threats when improved information sharing plays a bigger role in their cyber defense strategies, according to HITRUST.