Imagine if you were using a Sat Nav with visualisation and sound 10 minutes behind current location! That's the situation Dr Charles Alessi describes here where a GP Surgery and the NHS has to analyse data which is six months out of date.
Not so much looking in the rear-view mirror as looking at a printout map from a trip last summer to check traffic conditions today!.
So much of the information is also in text -typed in as the GP summarised the outcome of a patient's visit. This is not unlike the insurance industry where 90% of data is locked up in text inaccessible to the insurance company. Yes this traditionally conservative and innovation averse industry is unlocking such data and combining historic and real-time data both structured and unstructured, internal and external.
A key plank to increasing service to patients, productivity in healthcare and managing costs is the effective analysis of data for better, faster and well-executed decision making. Might be a good idea to look at the company helping the insurance industry achieve these goals
Alessi, also a practising GP in South West London and chair of the National Association of Primary Care, also highlighted the need for GPs to start harnessing what he sees as the power of analytics to interrogate data – and, most importantly, empower patients to do so. “If we are able to use data more effectively, not only will people be taking more responsibility of their health and wellbeing as the years go on but GPs will also be able to focus more on prevention rather than cure, as they will be able to better understand what lies ahead. “The data that many of us are working with is six months out of date, which is virtually useless. At the moment, GPs are not getting the full benefits of scaled technology and equally importantly, properly ‘joined-up’ technology.
