BI technology has advanced to the point where it can handle larger volumes of data, larger analytical models and put them in the hands of layman users, says Dan Foltz, vice president of Blue Bell, Pa.-based Anexinet.

"Data visualization is getting better," he said, "but a lot of organizations just aren't there yet."

Anexinet works with other industries on BI and Foltz says healthcare lags behind in utilizing its full potential. By contrast, the financial services sector is well ahead of the pack, he says.

"Things are starting to happen in healthcare, but there are some barriers," Foltz says. "Currently, analytics reporting is retrospective, charting care that was delivered yesterday. Healthcare needs to move toward prospective and predictive analytics."

Prospective analytics, he says, is determining why a patient didn't fill a drug prescription and acting proactively while predictive analytics is looking at a population to determine co-morbidities and complications among chronic disease patients.

For healthcare to truly transform, the industry needs to use BI as a measuring stick for results, not activities, Foltz says.

"Currently hospitals are being paid for activity and not outcomes  -  the incentives need to change," he said. "We need to work toward a system where everyone is incented by outcomes, including payers, drug companies and patients."

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Arbormetrix has been conducting analytics around the population and is generating some interesting statistics based on its evaluations, says CEO Brett Furst. For instance, because the majority of the chronic disease population is likely to experience a co-morbidity or episode, there are inconsistencies within the acute care setting, he said.

"There is a 30 percent cost variation from hospital to hospital and they need to look for trends on the reason for this difference," he said. "They need to consider demographics and co-morbidities and their influence on outcomes. And while the disease state management piece is an important piece, the majority of spending remains inside the acute care setting. Population health and DSM are here to stay, but for the near term, the concern is more on acute care."

Device tracking

BI isn't just for tracking activities and outcomes  -  gauging the performance of medical devices is also an important part of the equation, says Peter Witonsky, president and chief sales officer for Panama City, Fla.-based iSirona.

By combining its apps with greater intelligence and algorithms, the iSirona system enables hospitals to anticipate and prevent potential sentinel events related to improper device usage, such as ventilator-induced pneumonia.

"The staff is alerted if a vent patient's head angle is not 30 degrees," he said. "It also issues an alert if is not rotated properly to prevent skin ulcers. These are things that are not typically included in electronic medical record tracking  -  it is all about predictive modeling."