The growing presence of data collection and analysis offer healthcare providers the tools to improve medical processes, increase quality outcomes and comply with mandates of the Affordable Care Act.

But the sheer volume of data can leave hospitals, practices, and even health networks overwhelmed.

The Clinical & Business Intelligence Knowledge Center gives HIMSS15 attendees information, expert advice and case studies on a range of C&BI challenges and strategies.

“Recent health reform imperatives place new emphasis on being able to use data to identify trends, define more efficient and effective interventions, and manage population health,” says Shelley Price, director of payer and life sciences for HIMSS.

Beyond meeting ACA requirements, the ability to leverage clinical and business data promises to enable providers to transform how healthcare is delivered.

“C&BI offers the potential to inform accountable, high-quality patient care and drive unparalleled business insight — all the while improving an organization’s fiscal performance,” Price says.

Attendees visiting the Clinical & Business Intelligence Knowledge Center can hear more than a dozen presentations on topics such as data warehousing, data mining, benchmarking, reporting and dashboards, predictive modeling, secondary use of data, and C&BI for Accountable Care Organizations and community hospitals.

They also can get information and view demonstrations from more than 20 vendors of data and analytics products and services designed to help healthcare providers capture and use new types of data.

“EHR systems and clinical data are no longer the only data inputs to inform care,” Price says. “The challenge now is to take the data available to us — on the front-end, from various sources such as our financial, clinical and administrative systems — and then manage, analyze, understand, and act upon that data in order to improve processes and care more effectively and efficiently than ever before.”

The stakes go beyond the fortunes of specific healthcare providers.

“To truly move away from a volume-based healthcare system to a value-based and patient-focused system, we must learn how to use all data,” she says.

Attendees from many types of organizations would benefit from visiting the knowledge center, Price says, including enterprise- and community-based hospitals, ambulatory healthcare organizations, payers, data warehouses, health information exchanges, government health agencies and public policy bodies.

“If you are a healthcare executive, operations executive, or a director or staff from your business intelligence, quality, risk management, or IT/IS and financial systems departments, this Knowledge Center should be on your HIMSS15 agenda,” she says. 

It will be located in South Building, Hall A, Booth 5484.