3 thoughts on data management & telehealth in a value-based world

The influx of new technologies has opened up new avenues for healthcare organizations looking to successfully make the transition to value-based care.

A panel of experts at the Becker's Hospital Review 9th Annual Meeting April 11 to April 14 in Chicago weighed in on various aspects of data management, telehealth and population health management that can help organizations succeed in the evolving healthcare landscape. The panel included:

• Alan Pitt, MD, CMO of Avizia
• Michael Blackman, MD, medical director at Allscripts
• Ann Meehan, senior consultant for healthcare and life sciences at Iron Mountain

Dr. Blackman and Dr. Pitt agreed technology should seamlessly fit into clinicians' workflow. It should not be a separate activity.

"Interoperability is a favorite buzzword," Dr. Blackman said. "How do you get data in front of clinicians and how do you connect systems and normalize [the data] in a way that makes sense in the clinicians' workflow. Using cloud [technologies] is a piece but not the answer, because even if information is in the cloud, it all needs to be normalized in the same way. You have to be able to compare apples to apples, and if I need to log into different systems [to do that], I probably won't do it."

Ms. Meehan noted another key aspect of interpretability is accurate patient identification.

"To be interoperable we need to make sure we are identifying patients accurately and only then can we share the correct information," she said. "We have to look at our own organization and clean up our data. [We need to] have the proper polices, procedures and staff training in place to have put parameters around information."

Dr. Pitt also discussed how telehealth can play into population health management.

"Most of us are trying to take care of the chronically ill and we are looking at ways to manage that continuum, to get to a place where you can manage a high-risk population," he said. "[We need] stratified individuals delivering the right care at the right time. It is hard to do that cost effectively without technology. With telehealth, [the question is] how do we manage that full continuum rather than [use it only] for increasing access. Information and data is necessary, but not sufficient to transform care. Telehealth is a way to bring humanity back to healthcare by getting the right patient in front of the right specialist."

Editor's note: Quotes have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

 

 

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