Turning Big Data into Actionable Wisdom

Although people seem to assume Big Data will answer all questions and improve quality of care while increasing efficiencies, the healthcare industry needs to focus on what data is actually actionable, according to John Halamka, MD, chief information officer at Beth Israel Deaconess.

Dr. Halamka spoke about Big Data at his session at the US News Hospital of Tomorrow conference in Washington, DC, held October 6-8, 2014.

Prior to his session, he explained that his job is to take data from various sites of care and co-mingle it to identify where the data can be used to analyze gaps in care.

“We can look at who might be getting too much care, too little care,” Dr. Halamka said. “Where can we do a home visit? Where can we make an intervention that will keep these people from becoming a super-utilizer in the future?”

Read the full story from AJMC.com here.