Analytics Magazine Analytics Magazine, November/December 2014 | Page 24

healt h care a n a ly t i c s 2014: Year of many challenges Meaningful analytics is crucial to ensure delivery of quality care and improve the patient experience, while maintaining a positive bottom line. By Rajib Ghosh 24 | 2014 has been quite a remarkable year for the healthcare industry. We have seen various ups and downs, from the healthcare.gov fiasco to the surge of investment in the digital health technology space. A recent report published by StartUp Health shows that $5 billion has been invested in digital health technology during the first three quarters of 2014, which exceeds the total investment for all of 2013. Apple released its Healthkit product, and Google announced Google Fit – both are harbingers for personal datalevel analytics in the cloud. Both companies are moving aggressively forward in the healthcare technology space, and I predict that their competition will produce great outcomes for patients as consumers. Healthcare analytics is slowly taking center stage. As of this writing, $381 million was invested in healthcare-related analytics and big data in 2014. A new study by Johns Hopkins published in Academic Medicine found that analytics is critical to the success of accountable care organizations (ACO) [1]. In a recently concluded Healthcare Analytics Summit organized by Health Catalyst, senior leaders from Geisinger Health Systems, Cleveland Clinic and Texas Children’s Hospital confirmed that meaningful analytics is crucial to ensure delivery of quality care and improve the patient experience, while maintaining a positive bottom line. a n a ly t i c s - m a g a z i n e . o r g w w w. i n f o r m s . o r g