CareCentrix is a healthcare services company where technology already plays a key role. Our vision is a world where anyone can age or heal at home, which enables both lower costs and higher patient satisfaction. To achieve this vision, we must move to a model where technology does not simply enable our services, but becomes the strategic framework upon which our products are built.
Our CEO, John Driscoll, talks about data as a “force multiplier” – something that dramatically increases the effectiveness of everything we do.
Data’s evolving role
Our goal is transformational – where data feeds all our products, so that we drive the enterprise to make better decisions for patients and payers.
With meaningful data based on patients’ experiences, we can effectively predict which patients and which diagnoses are appropriate for successful and cost-effective homecare management. We can envision a world, based on machine learning, where we know what a specific patient needs as he or she is discharged from the hospital, and can focus resources on ensuring the patient’s path to healing. This is a vision that we are already acting on, by partnering to build an analytics tool to help drive our next stage of evolution.
[ Are you really a transformation slowpoke? See our related article, Dear CIOs: Stop beating yourselves up for being behind on transformation. ]
The uses for this data-enriched approach are nearly boundless: We can predict which patients may have certain barriers to healing, based on social, financial, or environmental factors. We can learn which treatments – and even which specific providers – deliver the best outcomes for similar patients at the most reasonable cost. In addition, we can do this all in real-time, at the point of care when patients and providers need to make decisions.
A Chief Technology Officer and a Chief Data Officer
We realized that we needed a model that both supports the day-to-day technology needs of our organization, as well as an additional role to drive the path forward for this type of strategic application of data. I have recently transitioned to the role of Chief Data Officer, and we have a full-time CTO to continue to champion the significant technology needs for our organization and its clients.
We envision our new model to be a partnership – where my team will develop the vision for predictive models, a new artificial intelligence engine, a new kind of capability similar to blockchain, and even streaming sensor data. We will work with our colleagues in the Technology organization within CareCentrix (as well as external partners) to build to this vision.
Moving toward a new business model like this does not just happen overnight. It continues to require a mindset that prioritizes questioning and disruption, as well as calculated risks.
Technology and data are revolutionizing the healthcare industry with analytics and insights. We have already seen how this is making a difference by improving patient outcomes, helping providers deliver care and collaborate to lower overall healthcare costs for payers, while improving our nation’s healthcare system.
