The evolution of data from a historical asset into live, instantly usable information is fundamental for any healthcare provider looking to value-based care models for the delivery of optimised patient treatment.

This is the view of Dr Lloyd McCann, CEO of Auckland-based Mercy Radiology and Clinics, and Head of Digital Health for Healthcare Holdings Limited, which is five years into its digital transformation journey across a portfolio of three hospital sites, 16 radiology clinics and a comprehensive range of healthcare services.

Dr McCann said his organisation’s transformation experience has been based on a new model of value-based care, shifting the focus from a purely clinical perspective to optimised outcomes based on patients’ definitions of what they expect.

"To be truly value-based you need to understand the inputs and outputs that are generating outcomes for patients at the end of the day," he said in an interview with HIMMS TV.

Dr McCann said the provider realised early on in the process that value-based care delivery is impossible without digitisation.

InterSystems TrakCare®, the unified healthcare information system from InterSystems, has played a crucial role in Mercy’s evolution from a manual-based hospital reliant on paper records to an integrated digital environment.

The migration of data from legacy systems – a challenge for any provider – has been a key element of a journey to become a mature analytics organisation.

The journey starts with retrospective analysis of historical outcomes, said Dr McCann. The next step is prospective analysis, or the ability to identify changes to improve outcomes. Ultimately, you can integrate innovative technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to predict the outcomes you can achieve.

"Healthcare providers have been very data rich but intelligence and information poor. The ability to take your data and transform it into actionable insights and intelligence to drive actions and decision making is absolutely crucial," he said.

Click here to kickstart your digital transformation journey to provide value-based care.

Watch the entire interview below: