As a leading diagnostics company that serves the entire country, Labcorp has a massive repository of health-related data, which can be tapped to help better serve the healthcare needs of both individual communities and the country at large. Labcorp data includes >150 million patient encounters per year in the United States and >50% of covered patients. Lab data is thought to influence nearly 70 percent of medical decisions. Leveraging this data is especially important in delivering access and quality care to underserved populations.
During a June 2021 webinar hosted by Becker's Hospital Review, two Labcorp executives described some of the company's innovative programs designed to harness science for human good:
- Bryan Vaughn, senior vice president of health systems
- Linda Fraunhofer, director of population health initiatives in value-based care
Five key takeaways:
1.) Labcorp has multiple activities to support community health. At a high level, the organization actively participates in hundreds of projects each year where the company's 70,000 employees support local communities. "We sponsor events with charitable organizations, conduct joint education programs and run free clinics through health fairs," Mr. Vaughn said. Labcorp provides direct programs as well as programs for employees and workplaces.
2.) Clients and partners need data solutions that deliver actionable information. To meet the needs of health system executives who are "drowning in data," Labcorp offers Insight Analytics. This provides lab-based population health analytics as a tool to define target opportunities. "For example, you're able to go from almost 2,000 diabetic patients down to 62 very specific patients who have poorly controlled diabetes with kidney disease and have not been tested for Hemoglobin A1c in the last six months," Ms. Fraunhofer said. That becomes actionable information and is provided at no cost to Labcorp partners to help close gaps in care for underserved populations.
3.) Labcorp aggregates community-based data to paint a larger picture for providers. Understanding the status quo for particular healthcare situations at the community level can be extremely valuable to local providers. For instance, Labcorp developed a community antibiogram, which aggregated data throughout a community to address antibiotic resistance concerns. "We want to enable the right decisions to be made that reflect what's happening in that community," Ms. Fraunhofer said. This can help community health centers deliver a higher quality of care to underserved clients.
4.) Further data analytics shape national screening guidelines. Using its data to look at an even larger picture of healthcare issues across the country, Labcorp is helping shape testing and screening guidelines for specific conditions. As an example, Labcorp discovered that patients with kidney disease frequently complete a blood test to assess kidney function, but most do not complete guideline-recommended urine testing. "We collaborated with the National Kidney Foundation to develop a kidney profile and standardize testing requirements," Ms. Fraunhofer said. "If a patient is at risk, multiple tasks would need to be completed for that patient to be considered appropriately screened."
5.) Labcorp integrates with many EHRs. Labcorp has interfaces with over 700 EHRs. This means that for providers that partner with Labcorp, discrete lab data flows directly into the patient’s chart record in their EHR, making this essential data easily accessible by providers.
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