3. Make data actionable. Furst says there's a common malaise in the industry around the promises analytics and big data seem to offer. He is careful to caution that "just aggregating your data isn't going to lead to big benefits," and that "data is just going to be a reference point." The important thing to remember, he says, is that clinical analytics is a tool first and foremost, and that without knowing which problems need to be solved, their use is limited. Furst says the ideal way to look at it is as if a hospital were like any other type of business: trying to do a top-to-bottom complete overhaul is a tough pill to swallow, and one that may not end up being that effective. Instead, he recommends taking the approach of "Let's start zeroing in on one area, and use the data to find where to start." Furst says the best results will come from focusing on a specific area to approach, with clearly defined goals and steps to take. "I see the real opportunity ... when you apply a higher level of algorithms to make the data more actionable," he says.

4. Understand the additional benefits. Who says clinical analytics is a one trick pony? By its very nature, analytics is the practice of taking a close look at a large amount of data and then driving outcomes with its findings. Furst says this can be put to a variety of uses in the healthcare world. When the lens is turned in an analytical fashion to the ways doctors work, the results can drive and change the development of best practices. Furst says that in the old fee-for-service world, "surgeons would do what they thought was medically appropriate, but they did so in a vacuum." Now, "when you come to them saying this device is $15,000 and this one is $2,000. And guess what, the $2,000 one is actually better, you're improving care and impacting your bottom line." 

5. Provide evidence based on the demographics of the patient. As well as being a powerful tool to drive changes in the operating theatre and the board room, clinical analytics has a role in communicating with the patient. Furst says a clinician should be able to sit down with his or her patient and be able to pull up treatment outcomes that match that patient's demographics as a way of saying "based on evidence the better procedure is A instead of B." Compared to already existing tools such as WebMD, which Furst feels contain "a deluge of information," that may not necessarily be relevant to the person reading it, clinical analytics has the ability to filter what's unimportant and to provide better information. Furst says the analytics enables practitioners to say, "Our statistical science shows this treatment option will deliver the best probable outcome for you."