Though some healthcare organizations have made advancements in their use of data analytics, for most it’s still a work in progress.
Developing skills that will be needed for data analysis even three years from now will be a challenge, according to an article at Healthcare IT News.
“Analytics is a people space. It’s not a hardware space or software space. Those tools are important, but absolutely your analytics enterprise will succeed or fail based on the people you have,” says Geisinger Chief Data Officer Nicholas Marko, M.D.
John Showalter, M.D., chief healthcare information officer at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, points out one of the biggest pitfalls: buying software beyond the capabilities of your staff. If a tool requires a Ph.D. to use it, that work should be outsourced, he says.
At the same time, training people on features of your existing software, such as pivot tables in Excel, can get people thinking about different data presentation ideas.
Bringing in key people and helping the feel part of something bigger also can be a secret to success, according to the article.
Danyal Ibrahim, M.D., chief data and analytics officer at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center notes, “analytics is a team sport.”
He’s focused on factors such as breaking down political silos within the organization, shaping the analytics team for the organization’s needs of the future, building a strong technical platform and developing meaningful metrics.
To learn more:
- here's the article