At the Becker’s Hospital Review 6th Annual Meeting three industry experts focused on the chief analytics officer role and how this position has helped changed the role of analytics in healthcare.
Roughly two decades ago, the CIO position began to become prominent in healthcare. But as healthcare IT grows only more complex, the leadership needed to control it is becoming more specialized. “Analytics is often confused with reporting,” said Pamela Peele, PhD, chief analytics officer of the UPMC Insurance Services Division. “Having a CAO consolidates your analytics resources.”
The power of analytics is now more accessible than ever. “The notion that you can’t do analytics without a multibillion dollar budget is simply not true,” said Isaac Cheifetz, principal of Trexin Consulting. CAOs are positioned to marshal the power of analytics without breaking a hospital or health system’s budget.
Analytics allows healthcare leaders to visualize trends that would have otherwise gone unseen and to then build strategy based on those uncovered patterns. “At the C-suite level, you become part of the leadership team,” said Nancy Garrett, PhD, chief analytics officer of Hennepin County Medical Center. “This helps me determine what analytics we need.”
Analytics is relatively new in the healthcare space, but it is deeply ingrained in many other leading industries. “I see healthcare learning from other analytics-driven businesses,” said Dr. Garrett. For example, look at Target or Amazon. We are behind; health plans are 10 years ahead of providers in understanding the strategic importance of data.”
Providers are coming to realize the necessity of analytics, and this is where CAOs come in. “Having a CAO is more a symptom than a cause,” said Mr. Cheifetz. “You’ve created a C-suite level role because you’ve already tried a series of initiatives around analytics.”
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