By Aine Cryts
John Showalter, MD, MSIS, CHIO
John Showalter, MD, MSIS, chief health information officer at University of Mississippi Medical Center (Jackson, Miss.), says that healthcare CIOs and CMIOs are spending way too much on big data and analytics solutions. We explored the subject with Showalter.
IE: You say healthcare organizations are spending too much on big data and analytics solutions. What does that mean to you?
Showalter: Healthcare organizations are putting the focus on building and buying large platforms, instead of finding the right people who can do predictions with relatively inexpensive tools, such as Excel.
Healthcare executives are frequently talking about going to these large platforms, which are really expensive. It takes months to years to actually be at a place where these large platforms are usable, and there’s a shortage of people who know how to use them.
We’re in this situation where vendors are saying, “If we let [hospitals] know about these platforms, they will come.” The reality is, there are 5,000 hospitals that need to use predictive analytics—and not all of them can afford this high-priced technology.
IE: Why do you think hospitals are spending this way today?
Showalter: We’re spending this way because one of our core competencies is relying on vendors to guide us through. But vendors have their own agendas; they want us to buy this platform from them, as opposed to getting the services that we need to make a difference in our communities.
IE: What are your three pieces of advice for CIOs and CMIOs when it comes to big data and analytics?
Showalter: My first piece of advice is to make sure that you have some track record of success before investing heavily in a platform. Otherwise, you may be making a career-limiting move.
Secondly, it’s about the people you hire. Consider bringing in people who aren’t from healthcare. I’m talking about industrial engineers and true “change agent” people who are plugged into the power of predictive analytics.
Thirdly, you need to become very rigorous about determining your return on investment. Pick a very targeted project. Choose one early that provides you with a very clean return on investment. That could be hospital-acquired conditions or readmissions or increase in visits. Then move forward toward more challenging metrics.
IE: How should CIOs and CMIOs build consensus for the need for big data and analytics?
Showalter: Consensus is key. First thing you need is a problem that’s bad enough for you to need to fix it, such as hospital-acquired conditions. Then you have to capture the right data and metrics. Finally, you need to provide actionable knowledge.
IE: What else should they consider?
Showalter: One of the key things with predictive analytics is these models can handle inconsistencies in the data. A number of the machine-loading modalities can take the “garbage in, garbage out” issue off the table. You don’t need to spend time cleansing the data three times in order for this to work.
About John Showalter:
John Showalter is a board-certified internal medicine physician and chief health information officer at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, a 500-physician hospital with an annual budget of $1.6 billion.
One of the first physicians to become board certified in clinical informatics, Showalter helped lead his hospital through its implementation of 23 Epic applications at five hospitals and 95 clinics in 2012.
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