Data. Big and small, it’s everywhere in healthcare -- and we’re only going to see more of it moving forward. There are already those saying, in fact, that data will be used to revolutionize the way care is delivered and paid for. But how will that revolution begin? And how will hospitals, integrated delivery networks and academic medical centers move beyond collecting more and more types of data and into putting that information to work in ways that ultimately improve patient care?

Those are two of the overarching questions heading into the HIMSS and Healthcare IT News Big Data and Healthcare Analytics Forum in Boston, October 23-24, 2017.

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Whether the information revolution arises through precision medicine, population health, value-based care or thus-far unnamed emerging shifts, data and the ability to analyze it will form the foundation of next-generation healthcare.

Consider the new HIMSS Analytics Clinical and Business Intelligence Essentials Brief. Published just last week, the research found that more than half of participating hospitals do not currently use clinical intelligence tools.

Among the 48 percent of hospitals that are using clinical intelligence tools, in fact, meaningful use reporting is the main reason, followed by patient outcome improvements, reducing readmissions, population health and disease management.

That reality both highlights the challenges healthcare organizations face when it comes to deploying and harnessing predictive and prescriptive analytics and points to the enormous opportunity that doing so essentially creates.

Expert speakers at the Big Data and Healthcare Analytics Forum will address those upsides and obstacles and take a pulse of where the industry is now as well discussing what you need to know about building for the future of analytics.

Specifically, the range of topics includes a look at how real-time analytics can improve both care and operations, lessons learned in predictive analytics and data modeling, using data to identify at-risk patients and determine whether a particular individual needs more or less intervention, and practical advice about cognitive machines in healthcare and precision medicine. And then there are the patients. Hospitals must empower consumers to be active players in the transition to value-based care and take the whole patient into consideration.

Hospitals of all sizes have considerable big data work ahead of them. The hardest aspects are surmountable and the possibilities of putting data to work are undeniable. But the future of healthcare depends on doing it right and now is the time to forge the path ahead.

The HIMSS and Healthcare IT News Big Data and Healthcare Analytics Forum takes place in Boston on Monday, Oct. 23 and Tuesday Oct. 24, 2017. 

Twitter: SullyHIT
Email the writer: tom.sullivan@himssmedia.com