LAS VEGAS – Whether it's from telemedicine, wearables and or electronic health records, a growing amount of healthcare data is becoming available on both an individual and population-wide level. 

"But just because you have data," pointed out Michael Meucci, chief operating officer at Arcadia, "doesn't mean that it's meaningful."  

In a HIMSS21 session here on Thursday, Meucci and his co-panelists explained how an optimized data supply chain can save stakeholders time and resources – and allow them to maximize the value of information as an asset.  

As Meucci explained, traditional, supply-chain driven data projects usually involve building new pipelines for each need.

"It takes 12, 15, 24 weeks at times," he said. "And at the end of the day, the end product may not actually be what you wanted because you were constrained by the data … coming through that data pipe."

Alternatively, an optimized data supply chain involves pulling the entire source into a schema-less lake, thus increasing its liquidity. 

"When you have a new project, you go to the lake instead of having to go back to the source," he said.  

Meucci invoked the Netflix business model, which pivoted to respond to what customers wanted – access to a streaming library – rather than sticking to a system of mailed DVDs that was slower and less flexible.  

"Ultimately, the most innovative supply chains are the ones that listen to the consumer and change," he said.  

Meucci's co-panelists, Castell Chief Executive Officer Dave Dirks and Chief Analytics Officer Andrew Sorenson, offered a real-world example of the ways information can be packaged for the greatest utility, especially when it comes to value-based care.  

Sorenson talked through Castell's "huddle dashboard" tool, aimed at allowing care teams to focus on key data.  

"One of the things we heard from end users was that a major question they needed to be able to answer was, who is not on their schedule that needs to be?" he said. Sorenson's team helped construct an algorithm geared toward taking the complexity out of making that decision.   

Clinicians can also see if their patient has a care gap, he said, enabling outreach for preventive procedures like colonoscopies.  

"We're actually creating bandwidth and capacity for providers who are already pretty overworked," he said.  

Dirks encouraged attendees to think of the tool as being akin to a surgical pack in the operating room.  

"We're saying, 'Here are all the supplies you need for today to provide the best care for your patients,'" he said.   

Most of the groups the Castell team has talked to are approaching value-based care by keeping physicians on productivity models, Dirks said, while layering on the extra labor a VBC model requires.

"It is simply not realistic, and it's not going to change healthcare in this country," he said. 

"We believe there's a massive transformation that has to take place," Dirks continued. "Part of what Castell has done, in conjunction with Arcadia and our other partners, is to set up and build that infrastructure to really make an impact."

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Twitter: @kjercich
Email: kjercich@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.