Clinical Care Improvements Are Waiting to Be Uncovered in Cardiology
The burgeoning discipline of data analytics in healthcare has so far focused largely on operational and financial outcomes. We’ve achieved some excellent results, and I have no doubt that we’ll continue.
The thing is, most people didn’t go into healthcare to help organizations save money. They do what they do, ultimately, to help people get and stay healthy.
That’s why I’m excited for the future of healthcare analytics – particularly in cardiology, and especially with the vast number of devices that GE Healthcare brings to the table.
Financial and operational data is pretty common across different care areas.
However, the details of clinical care at the specialty level are unique. And that’s where we’re poised to focus our attention next.
As a hub of many imaging modalities vital to cardiology, from ECG to the echo lab to the cath lab, GE Healthcare is bringing together different reporting systems and data structures into one unified system. We have extraordinary ability to extract and interpret data across healthcare IT systems, devices and imaging equipment.
The opportunity now is to slice all this data and track it over time to gain powerful new insights into patients’ health and the most effective paths of care.
Imagine what we can do to easily cross reference a patient’s Ejection Fracture measurement from different modalities such as Cardiac Cath, Echo and Nuclear Cardiology to quickly and more accurately support a diagnosis and care management. Or, for another example, we could automatically map results from echo strain imaging over time to more accurately predict when a patient’s heart is at risk due to cardiotoxic effects that could result from chemotherapy treatments, leading to better patient outcomes.
The potential for evaluating risks, determining the best approaches and improving surgical outcomes in cardiology patient care is huge.
And in the end, helping to improve patient care will also help us keep making the financial and operational inroads that healthcare administrators continue to seek – by helping to reduce hospital stays and the need for follow-up visits and complex treatments, etc.
All around us, there are opportunities that should get the blood flowing.