To be a powerhouse in health care data and analytics, you need four key components
Bob Darin discusses the four key components necessary to become a data and analytics powerhouse in health care.
Every person’s health journey is unique, and personalization is essential to support and help guide that journey. Today the route to personalization is through data and analytics. The more we know, the more we can predict and fine-tune so that we can deliver the most effective help. CVS Health has invested in four key components we believe are necessary to effectuate personalized support.
The first component is data. CVS Health has a very rich data foundation, starting with the data from the billions of pharmacy claims we process every year and building on that with data on the customers at our pharmacies, the patients at MinuteClinic, and payor data through our work with Aetna and with other health plans. Increasingly we can bring in data from medical claims and electronic health records. The connected devices used to manage prescriptions also contribute data on how people interact and respond to health care information.
Importantly, the data is connected and organized, linked to events and encounters that help to provide context, making it very useful in determining recommendations and next best actions.
The second key component is deep healthcare understanding, which comprises not only clinical knowledge about care processes but also an understanding of benefit design. An intervention or recommendation that conflicts with a member’s benefit design, or doesn’t reflect where the member is in his care journey, is not helpful.
The third key component is analytics. CVS Health has invested in the people and processes — including artificial intelligence and machine learning — that power deep analytics, going far beyond the risk stratification and predictive models that have been in use for 20 years or more. We are able to look at the combination of factors that impact the effectiveness of our outreach and support. We can look at channel, timing, message and more to determine the best way to drive action.
The fourth key component is connectivity. We have the ability to deliver those curated messages to the right people, whether it’s the member himself, the provider, the care manager, or a CVS Health pharmacist or nurse practitioner. We can deliver messages when the member is already involved in a care encounter with someone who’s a familiar part of the care team. It’s a way to directly enhance the power of the human touch. At the core of our connectivity is our Health Engagement Engine, which also incorporates a feedback loop so that we’re continually learning more about what works and what doesn’t so we can improve the analytics and our ecosystem.
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