Opinion: Analytics study shows door is open to data-driven care transition
18 October 2022
By Andrew Aho
The subject of healthcare analytics and interoperability has long been fraught in Australia. The complexities and difficulties presented by our federated health system and mix of public and private providers are considerable. So much so that they inspired a huge breakthrough in health data standards – FHIR or Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources.
It’s somewhat ironic, then, that only 11 per cent of Australian healthcare provider organisations currently employ FHIR-enabled data exchange. That figure is set for a rapid upswing, however, with a further 57 per cent of provider organisations planning a shift to a FHIR-based interoperability platform.
How do we know this? InterSystems engaged tech advisory firm Ecosystm to conduct a study of 180 healthcare executives across Australia and New Zealand. Respondents held senior roles in public and private organisations, large and small hospitals, in city and rural locations, and were screened for knowledge of their organisation’s analytics adoption and roadmap.
The study revealed reasons for optimism about improvements in interoperability, but it also underscored the fact that, right now, Australian healthcare organisations have a problem with their data. For example, while analytics is central to achieving their objectives, there is a lack of maturity in capabilities required to execute.
Analytics is a top priority, but data has trust issues
This presents challenges for both providers and health departments looking to address capacity shortages exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic with data-driven care strategies. Almost all healthcare executives say data analytics is a top priority, but most don’t fully trust their data and admit that data quality is a challenge. And few organisations have a holistic data strategy to fix the problem.
Looking at organisations’ top business objectives, the survey found conflicting demands to improve clinical outcomes while reducing costs. Complying with government mandates was the number one objective, chosen by 63 per cent of Australian respondents, followed by cost optimisation (49 per cent) and improving clinical outcomes (41 per cent).
Data is central to complying with mandates and resolving the conflicting demands between cost optimisation and improved outcomes. We use data to diagnose diseases, manage care, run hospitals, and justify payments. Data fuels research and discovery, measures efficacy and informs health policy. In short, data is the foundation of healthcare innovation.
Not surprisingly, 77 per cent of Australian organisations said analytics was either intrinsic to all their business priorities or a top priority in its own right.
Alignment with the goals of value-based care
This raises another fraught topic, that of value-based healthcare. The concept – analysing data to maximise health outcomes per unit of cost – is not often discussed in Australia.
Yet, when asked about the outcomes they expect from analytics solutions, Australian respondents were closely aligned with the goals of value-based healthcare – improved outcomes at an optimised cost. Key outcomes included improved patient outcomes or experience, identification of patient risk, reduced costs and reduced clinical errors.
Unfortunately, not all data is available for analytics, and many stakeholders don’t trust it. Only 45 per cent of Australian healthcare executives surveyed fully trusted their data. In addition, 54 per cent say data quality is one of the top challenges they face in successfully implementing analytics.
Ensuring data quality requires a data-driven organisational culture where people and processes are focused on accuracy across the data value chain and consistency across disparate data sources.
Lack of holistic data strategy remains a roadblock
But when asked about their organisation’s data strategy, only 28% of Australian respondents said they had a digital transformation strategy that includes interoperability, data governance and analytics. The lack of a holistic data strategy is a significant roadblock for the remaining 72 per cent.
Without a holistic data strategy, many healthcare organisations are limited in the number of datasets they can analyse. This means that clinicians are making decisions crucial to patient outcomes with only a fraction of the total data available.
While half of Australian organisations could use in-patient clinical data in their analytics solutions, only 43 per cent could use data from diagnostic systems. Only 36 per cent could use patient administration data. Clinical data from outpatient services was available for analytics solutions at three in 10 of organisations, 28 per cent could use text from communications systems, and 23 per cent could use log files.
Fewer than one in seven of organisations could use sensor or medical device data – one of the fastest-growing sources – in their analytics solutions. To deliver the desired outcomes, all these figures need to be close to 100 per cent.
Push towards standardisation of data exchange
Healthcare leaders want effective data analytics. And, according to our survey, they want a change in the interoperability environment that enables it.
The uptake of FHIR will undoubtedly help. New data management approaches such as smart data fabrics will also play a role in solving interoperability challenges. These solutions connect and synthesise data by embedding a wide range of analytics capabilities, including data exploration, business intelligence, natural language processing and machine learning.
They make it faster and easier for organisations to gain new insights and power predictive or prescriptive services and applications.
This helps organisations gain new insights and make better decisions for both the business and their patients. Importantly, it also allows existing legacy applications and data to remain in place; meaning organisations can maximise the value of previous technology investments.
Many challenges must be overcome before Australian healthcare organisations transition to data-driven healthcare strategies. But the indications are that they are open to new solutions and that the pace of change is accelerating.