introduction feature article industry news sas founder rePort case study free demo about us

Unleashing theValue of Data Hidden Within Health Care OrganizationsThe health care industry is undergoing a dramatic

transformation, and the huge influx of data is a driving force

in these important changes. Visual analytics is an essential

tool that helps providers, practitioners and administrators

understand the implications of the data and how to make

smarter, faster decisions.

SponSored bypreSented by

introduction feature article industry news sas founder rePort case study free demo about us

2

Table of Contents

3 introductionFor today’s advanced analytics requirements in health care organizations, what you see is what you get

5 feature article Health care, big data and visual analytics: A powerful triad enabling better patient outcomes and improved operations

9 industry newsThree ways analytics can help ACOs improve outcomesDashboards: Data visualization for all elements of the business

15 sas founderBright future for visual data analytics

16 reportIntelligence Quarterly: Journal of Advanced Analytics

17 case studyLillebaelt Hospital streamlines journal audits using SAS® Text Analytics

19 free demoThe Role of Visual Analytics in Disease Management

20 about us

feature article industry news sas founder rePort case study free demo about us

3

introduction

Introductionfor today’s advanced analytics requirements in health care organizations, what you see is what you get

Visual analytics is revolutionizing the way information is processed, analyzed and reported in the health care industry, and it is helping organizations become more strategic and efficient in critical decision-making.

The health care industry is going through a revolution of unprecedented magnitude and impact. Obviously, issues such as dramatic improvements in health care technology have positively affected diagnostics, remediation and long-term improvements in patient health.

Compliance and an increased regulatory footprint also have transformed health care into a significantly more data-driven profile. Capturing, sharing and reporting information on everything from safeguarding patient privacy to ensuring proper temperature levels for pharmaceuticals storage has created a huge sense of urgency for health care organizations from single-practitioner offices to national, even multinational, health care providers.

This is the new reality of health care, where huge increases in data volumes and the advent of titanic data sets have made it more important—and more difficult—than ever for health care organizations to become data-proficient. The difficulty, of course, takes many forms: upgrading digital infrastructure to capture, store and manage all that data; installing and administering incredibly strict and precise data security standards; and installing new business processes to accommodate a richer mix of technology into traditional manual-based operations.

feature article industry news sas founder rePort case study free demo about us

4

introduction

But perhaps nowhere in health care are the changes more pronounced than in the advanced data analytics required to make sense of all the new data sources—applications, devices, repositories and services—now inundating health care organizations. As pressures mount on the health care industry to improve patient outcomes, momentum is building for even more sophisticated analytics tools to sort through this greater and more diverse data to make better, faster and more economical decisions. Whether the goal is to find better treatment methods, identify sources of illness, analyze patient needs or comply with a confusing morass of regulations, decision makers must find a way to analyze that data quicker and more accurately. Sorting through millions of rows and columns of spreadsheet data is far too daunting for even the most sophisticated IT professional, so imagine how difficult it is for doctors, nurses, technicians, and hospital and practice administrators.

That’s where visual data analytics comes in.

Harvesting the data deluge

Visual analytics is proving to be a boon to the health care industry by helping organizations quickly, efficiently and reliably sort through huge volumes of unstructured and structured data in a visual format. Graphical dashboards literally bring data to life by presenting essential information—typically aligned with well-defined business rules and policies—in an automated fashion. This not only helps decision makers view data in familiar and user-friendly formats—charts, graphs, tables, pictograms

and others—but it also significantly relieves the pressure on seriously overextended in-house IT resources to respond quickly to the needs of business and medical stakeholders.

There are countless real-world examples of how health care organizations are putting visual analytics to work in improving efficiency and enhancing patient outcomes. For instance, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has successfully pioneered the use of visual analytics to support evidence-driven policy decisions. The prestigious, Boston-based Brigham and Women’s Hospital is using the technology to help hospital staff visually understand the impact of their actions on patient care, hospital financial performance and operational performance. And the Palo Alto Medical Foundation now depends on visual analytics to identify trends in diseases among specific ethnic groups, and use that data to develop new, highly focused treatment methods—with eye-opening success.

Visual analytics is revolutionizing how the health care industry operates and serves its patients in an era of increasingly demanding information needs. Without visual analytics tools, health care organizations would be hard-pressed not only to meet such demanding requirements as ensuring ongoing regulatory compliance and improving financial performance, but also achieving the most important result of all: better patient treatment and outcomes. ■

This e-book explores the intersection of visual analytics and the health care industry in great detail. We encourage you to spend time reviewing the articles and other content resources within this e-book to learn more about this technology’s application in the health care field.

Introductionfor today’s advanced analytics requirements in health care organizations, what you see is what you get (COnTInued)

introduction industry news sas founder rePort case study free demo about us

5

feature article

Feature ArticleHealth care, big data and visual analytics: a powerful triad enabling better patient outcomes and improved operations

In the era of big data, health care organizations may have the best seat in the house. data is being created at an astounding rate in the health care industry, thanks to an explosion of unstructured data from a wide variety of sources. These include the massive increase in unstructured data from electronic health records and high-resolution imaging, the dramatic expansion in wireless networking to allow data to be captured by a variety of handheld devices, the boom in bedside computing and mobility applications for health care and, without question, the ever-growing amount of regulatory compliance mandates, from the latest version of HIPAA to the various elements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Of course, foremost among all compliance issues driving huge increases in data volumes is the mandate for electronic health records, and the attendant requirements to prove meaningful use.

Another key driver in making health care a big data stronghold is the increased use of text-based analytics. even as health care delivery becomes increasingly digitized, many practitioner processes remain unstructured and inaccessible. To fully incorporate all practitioner-based input, many health care organizations are using text analytics as an important part of an overarching business analytics framework. Techniques such as text mining and content categorization are just a few in a long list of features health care organizations are incorporating to ensure that text analytics captures this essential form of unstructured data for such applications as patient safety, compliance, e-discovery and improved patient outcomes.

Of course, these are hardly the only issues driving what’s been called the “data deluge” in health care. Consider the advent of data-rich medical devices such as infusion pumps, vein illumination devices and

state-of-the-art pacemakers. Then, there’s the trend, termed “the Internet of Things,” where a whole host of sensors, machines, intelligent hospital rooms and even people with microprocessor-based implants for health monitoring and management are connected in a global network.

From this morass of data, health care organizations are looking for new ways not only to store and manage this data, but to efficiently and immediately glean insight from the data to help them make smarter decisions. This data is crucial in helping practitioners and administrators achieve such diverse and essential goals as improving patient care and outcomes, drive higher patient satisfaction, provide patients with the ability to access their health records at a moment’s notice, improve health care organizations’ revenue streams and financial performance, and ensure ongoing compliance with an ever-changing and increasingly complex regulatory environment.

introduction industry news sas founder rePort case study free demo about us

6

feature article

But if this is a heady time for health care organizations, it’s also creating headaches for IT executives and business stakeholders looking to make sense of all this data. data mining tools, business intelligence solutions and deep analytics are certainly key elements in their plans, but imagine the overwhelming task of wading through millions or even billions of rows of spreadsheets, or countless digital images, to find that one “aha” moment that will result in a breakthrough treatment, improved cash flow or a transformative patient experience.

using visual analytics for big data in health care

Visual analytics is the linchpin in health care organizations’ efforts to make sense of big data. Being able to graphically display not only essential data, but to boil down those data elements to find that elusive needle in the haystack, is giving health care organizations unprecedented capabilities to use big data to their advantage rather than being overrun by it.

According to estimates from market researcher Frost & Sullivan, even a modest-sized hospital’s electronic medical records can easily run into multiple terabytes, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see some larger hospitals with petabyte-level storage requirements just for patient records. now, imagine parsing that much data to determine correlations between certain treatments and length of hospital stays. A hospital administrator might ask the IT organization to determine that, and without the ability to visually display, analyze and surface trends, the task would take days or even weeks. Visual analytics not only cuts the time and cost of those

searches, but can surface critical associations among data points far more easily because of the familiar graphical displays such as charts, graphs and pictograms, usually in a straightforward dashboard format.

Another area in which visual analytics is becoming an essential tool is in the detection of potential sources of fraud and abuse. For instance, public health agencies responsible for processing and paying Medicaid claims are using visual analytics to quickly surface potential cases of fraud, while a Long Island municipality has used it to uncover instances of abnormally high rates of painkiller prescriptions being written by some practitioners.

Why does visual analytics make sense for big data applications such as health care? One answer may come from the human brain’s ability to process huge volumes of data. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have calculated that more data traverses the internet every second than all the data stored online just 20 years ago. As remarkable as the human brain is as an information-processing and storage machine, it simply can’t work fast enough or efficiently enough to crunch all that data without some help. data visualization effectively reduces massive and complex data structures into a format that better aligns with the brain’s ability to recognize, analyze and act on information. Current state-of-the-art visualization techniques, when added to deep analytics, make it easier for users to register data values than they could when leafing through spreadsheets or other traditional data-reporting techniques.

Feature ArticleHealth care, big data and visual analytics: a powerful triad enabling better patient outcomes and improved operations (COnTInued)

introduction industry news sas founder rePort case study free demo about us

7

feature article

real-market examples of visual analytics for health care big data

Visual analytics is an opportunity for health care organizations—large and small alike—to efficiently, quickly and reliably sift through mountains of data to find insight across so many parts of today’s health care spectrum. For instance, health care research initiatives, such as dartmouth College’s Atlas Project, are measuring health care usage throughout the united States. Also, the university of Hong Kong is visually analyzing genetic data faster and more efficiently to identify disease and outcomes related to genetic trends.

These health care industry applications—and countless others—share the characteristics of huge, growing, complex data sets. These data sets are far too large to analyze quickly and cost efficiently without big data tools, but they also need the visual impact of having data presented in graphical formats to get to the essential insight.

Visual analytics in the new world of outcomes-based health care

One of the most important transformations in both the delivery of health care services and in the business model for the industry is the shift from the traditional fee-for-service model to the new outcomes-based remuneration for providers under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. While many health care organizations and health insurance providers had begun shifting to an outcomes-based payment model, health care reform kicked that trend into overdrive.

Whatever model is being used—such as improved patient satisfaction scores under the Press Ganey model or other approaches—health care organizations and practitioners now have a laser-sharp focus on improving outcomes, and they need to crunch serious data to understand not only how they’re doing, but how to improve their performance. The rise of what’s now called the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) has taken data analytics to an entirely new plane, and visual analytics has found its way into the forefront of those efforts.

Feature ArticleHealth care, big data and visual analytics: a powerful triad enabling better patient outcomes and improved operations (COnTInued)

introduction industry news sas founder rePort case study free demo about us

8

feature article

data that previously failed to be captured, recorded, stored, shared or utilized is now usually part of gigantic data warehouses. But extracting that data, even with sophisticated eTL (extract, transform and load) software solutions, only solves part of the problem. In order to achieve that elusive complete view of the patient, organizations are rushing to upgrade their analytics engines to fully integrate data from across their enterprise.

For instance, imagine the journey of a typical patient visitor to their local hospital: emergency department, triage, preliminary diagnosis, imaging, admission, in-room treatment, possibly more imaging, pharmacy, surgery, recovery and—hopefully—discharge. All along the way, data is being created, captured, shared, stored and reported on that patient. naturally, the hospital’s business stakeholders—administrators, finance executives, compliance officers, doctors, nursing staff and housekeeping—all want to understand how they are doing in meeting the patient’s needs and whether it will culminate in a positive outcome. With most of those stakeholders unable or unwilling to devote hours of their day analyzing analog data or, at best, spreadsheets, it’s a futile task without significant IT intervention.

Of course, IT companies are under more pressure than ever. Their budgets have often been slashed, their staffs reduced, while their applications backload has grown, with all constituents now wanting real-time insights. Visual analytics may be the single most valuable tool to help stakeholders quickly and efficiently sort through reams of data in an accessible, useable format. ■

White Paper: Fast and Furious: How SAS® Visual Analytics Helps IT Deliver a Business Intelligence Platform for High-Speed Analytics

Feature ArticleHealth care, big data and visual analytics: a powerful triad enabling better patient outcomes and improved operations (COnTInued)

WHITE PAPER

Fast and FuriousHow SAS® Visual Analytics Helps IT Deliver a Business Intelligence Platform for High-Speed Analytics

introduction feature article sas founder rePort case study free demo about us

9

industry news

Industry newsthree ways analytics can help acos improve outcomesBy Mark Vreeland and Todd Schack | Health data Management | August 16, 2013

As the model for health care delivery changes from fee-for-service to payment-for-outcomes, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are racing to find new tools that help unearth, analyze and report essential data that improves patient diagnoses, treatments and results. Visual analytics is playing a valuable role in this process by helping ACOs get the right data to the right people to facilitate improved outcomes, using sophisticated analytics to improve collaboration across the ACO, and integrate the mountain of unstructured data generated in health care organizations to provide a deeper insight into decision-making factors.

data on healthcare quality is achieving new prominence. The movement to create Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), the imminent advent of health exchanges and the explosion of new patients projected to enter the market are just several of the reasons why data will have an inescapable presence and indispensable value in the evolving healthcare marketplace.

even in its early days, healthcare reform has already begun to redefine the basic relationship among providers, payers and patients. With so much contingent on satisfaction and quality outcomes, providers must embrace the role that data can play in producing new insights around delivering quality, developing personal engagement and building greater patient loyalty.

The accountable care environment is rich with possibilities to collect, organize and analyze data to drive better patient outcomes. However, many healthcare organizations that have recently entered or are planning

to join ACOs lack experience in maximizing analytics to support the ACO’s ultimate goals of improving health outcomes and empowering patients to be more involved in their own care. data is often unrecorded, unshared or underutilized. The good news is that ACOs, like many components of the Affordable Care Act, are still in a nascent stage, so organizations still have time to get the formula right.

Healthcare organizations must adopt a holistic, 360-degree view of their existing analytics systems and procedures to achieve a clinically integrated care environment. There are three actions ACOs can take to maximize the efficacy of their analytics processes for improved outcomes and performance.

introduction feature article sas founder rePort case study free demo about us

10

industry news

1. deliver the data to the right audience for enhanced patient care. In an ACO, the caregivers—physicians, nurses, physician assistants—know the patient best, so the outcomes of analytics must be relevant to them. It is vital to build the right infrastructure so that caregivers are armed with the real-time information they need to provide quality at the point of the encounter. Caregivers’ use of analytics can be thought of in the same way stockbrokers make key buy-and-sell decisions. Obtaining key information at strategic decision points can determine the size of the gain or loss; in healthcare, timely data derived from analytics can influence a caregiver’s treatment path. This underscores the idea of creating an environment where the right person can deliver the right care at the right time—a winning formula for any ACO.

2. integrate analytics across the entire aco for improved collaboration. Rather than build analytics around a specific function or department, they should be seamlessly integrated and utilized throughout the organization. Making analytics an omnipresent, consistent and easily accessible facet of ACOs can improve patient care by facilitating cohesive collaboration and sharing vital information among caregivers. Many patients have complex conditions with comorbidities that require a range of caregivers to cooperate, sometimes at a moment’s notice. Take for example a 65-year-old male patient admitted to the hospital for dialysis secondary to renal failure, likely secondary to a combination of hypertension and diabetes, who also has congestive heart failure, hypothyroidism and depression. Comprehensive treatment would require input from individuals across the nephrology, cardiology, endocrinology and psychiatry departments. Analytics can empower caregivers throughout the hospital by providing a 360-degree view of the patient’s condition and needs, which can improve their collective patient care.

3. incorporate unstructured data for advanced perspective. Unstructured data—including insights from social media and clinical journals or medical data housed in the Library of Congress—should be valued at a level equal to structured data (e.g., electronic health records). While structured data may be easier for providers to compile and track, creating the proper infrastructure to collect and analyze unstructured data can allow ACOs to glean a more comprehensive view of the collective data landscape.

Prioritizing these three areas can help ACOs achieve the enormous value analytics can provide in our patient-centered healthcare ecosystem. In addition to implementing solid analytics processes, successful ACOs are already focusing on risk stratification, prevention and management of care transitions to round out their value proposition to patients. All of these components are crucial to delivering clinically integrated care and promoting an environment that considers all kinds of data across the entire organization. By taking steps to adopt a holistic, 360-degree patient view with key analytics, ACOs should be able to find measurable success even faster. ■

Mark Vreeland and Todd Schack are executive directors in the Healthcare Advisory Services unit of Ernst & Young LLP. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ernst & Young.

Industry newsthree ways analytics can help acos improve outcomes (COnTInued)

introduction feature article sas founder rePort case study free demo about us

11

industry news

Industry newsdashboards: data visualization for all elements of the businessBy dan Germain and Shadan Malik | Information Management | August 17, 2012

In the era of big data, 24/7 business operations and real-time decision making, business executives and their teams must be able to sift through mounds of information to make critical decisions. dashboards have become an essential part of organizations’ toolkits because visual presentation of structured and unstructured data quickly turns that data into the true insights required to achieve key business goals and transform their businesses.

It is time to stop thinking of dashboards as a “nice to have” and instead view the technology as a way to provide everyone in the company with a common version of the truth. Long gone are the clunky spreadsheets and simple, static graphs; data visualization has evolved into a dynamic discipline that is opening up new doors for the exploration and analysis of complex data sets for a wide range of businesses. 

Knowledge is power

Collection of information is required for every industry. For example, the number of patients seeing a doctor each day or how quickly a waste management company’s employees are picking up refuse are measures that can be tracked to determine how a business is running. Without this intelligence, it is impossible to know what is working, where weaknesses exist and what processes may need to change to ensure the health of the organization.

However, collecting the data is only half the job. If the information is siloed, it cannot be easily viewed or acted upon. If the material is trapped in static computer applications, like spreadsheets, it may only be made available to a limited number of employees. Many companies have found the key to

easing this pain is dashboard technology. designed to provide the visual intelligence needed to analyze, track and drill down through complex data sets, companies can leverage information assets through personalized, real-time business intelligence dashboards.

due to the flexibility of the technology, BI dashboards can be deployed to enhance any data collection system. dashboards come in all shapes and sizes, and they empower users across many vertical markets and organizations to work more efficiently and effectively toward a common set of goals. The first step to ensure success is to have an organization define key performance indicators that best illustrate progress toward its objectives.

use of dashboards will vary depending on a company’s focus and business goals. For instance, the most commonly understood use of dashboard technology is internal monitoring of KPIs [Key Performance Indicators] to help users make quick, well-informed business decisions. Alternatively, and more commonly seen today, dashboards are being leveraged in client-facing scenarios to help consolidate information and results so that they can be displayed and analyzed at a glance.

introduction feature article sas founder rePort case study free demo about us

12

industry news

By definition, both types of dashboards are visual displays of the most important information needed to assess progress and objectives. With data demands increasing exponentially and customers calling for greater visibility into their investments and results, it’s no wonder that companies are relying on dashboards to deliver more power to their business users and customers. Real-time data availability is becoming the BI reporting standard and is required to support critical business processes today. Knowledge is power, and understanding what is happening empowers stakeholders to identify what must be done to remain successful.

using real case studies, the following illustrates the different ways that dashboards are used to measure results and track progress toward objectives.

dashboards for data-driven decisions

The value of data is directly proportionate to how fast businesses can react to it. More than ever, largely due to the current turbulent financial climate, organizations of all sizes need to be on their toes and be responsive to the potentially game-changing information they have access to. With the trepidation resulting from the current economic uncertainty looming over the heads of many organizations, it is critical that personnel have the capability to identify how their performance data can be leveraged. deep understanding of the state of the business today will help to make better decisions for tomorrow.

With the help of dashboard technology, organizations such as Advanced Solutions International (ASI) can assist nonprofit organizations to stay on track using BI to monitor their staffs and campaigns. This insight allows organizations to run more nimble fund-raising programs and better manage their donor communities. As a leading provider of nonprofit software solutions, ASI understands that in order to plan ahead, optimize resources and meet campaign goals, agencies must have full transparency of their data.

A major benefit of using dashboards is the visibility they provide into the peaks and valleys of an organization’s performance. Instead of taking the time to analyze and comprehend a screen of spreadsheets with rows of data, users can accurately gauge performance with a quick glance. dashboards indicate the pulse of the organization, allowing users to graphically see these business patterns as they unfold, allowing project managers to adjust campaign activities and budgets accordingly.

This insight is powerful for nonprofits or any organization for that matter interested in staying competitive or in business. For many, having the foresight into these business trends is critical in order to be proactive during the course of a project, rather than responsive to the performance data after project completion. With the economic downturn, the near real-time access to data is a constant and especially valuable reminder of how important it is to stay on track and manage progress toward goals.

Industry newsdashboards: data visualization for all elements of the business (COnTInued)

introduction feature article sas founder rePort case study free demo about us

13

industry news

The ability to quickly identify issues and initiate a response or new programs before things “go south” is the key to staying afloat. For example, dashboards can provide insight into the performance of annual campaign contributions and offer predictions on the performance based on the data trends that appear. With a real-time view to this level of detail, a nonprofit can spot a problem as it’s happening and have time to make adjustments, while it can still have an impact on the overall donation goal. The visual intelligence offered by dashboard technology enables the agility needed to make smart decisions quickly.

With this information, the program manager is able to make accurate and timely assessments of the progress and performance of the campaign, without the time needed to generate reports manually. Real-time information is available automatically from an online dashboard.

show me the metrics

Today more than ever, dashboards are being used as reporting tools to spotlight results in client-facing scenarios. Helping to consolidate information that can then be monitored and analyzed at a glance, these dashboards track vendor performance and output.

In the case of Tech Image, a public relations firm, its client-facing PR-activity dashboards are designed to display a campaign’s success, current status and progress toward goals. each client selects the KPIs most important to their campaign objectives. For example, they may elect to monitor media coverage, quality of the story, overall tone of the article, content and budget to ensure that the results are in line with the cost of the program.

Coupling the ability to quickly view and assess information, the benefits realized from these dashboards include opening up more time for strategic planning, removing the guesswork of assessing each activity’s impact and providing users with insight to determine if goals and objectives have been met or if they remain on track. With 24x7 access to data about the program, near-real-time reporting, and the ability to spot trends over time and make adjustments, these dashboards let clients recognize the value of their campaigns.

Industry newsdashboards: data visualization for all elements of the business (COnTInued)

introduction feature article sas founder rePort case study free demo about us

14

industry news

Industry newsdashboards: data visualization for all elements of the business (COnTInued)

In addition to providing the insight needed to tailor activities to ensure success, the dashboards empower users to map PR activities directly to lead generation. Quantifying the connection between increasing brand awareness and an uptick in sales has long been a contention between PR firms and their clients. until now, it has been nearly impossible to prove. using dashboards to track specific activities and their results enables users to see the correlation and the results the PR campaign provides.

address dashboard challenges before they become obstacles

As with any software application, dashboards are only valuable when populated with the appropriate data. Therefore, it is critical that organizations identify the metrics or KPIs that best represent the health of their company. For example, a financial institution must track risk management and net income, whereas a manufacturer needs to monitor its supply chain and the production of goods.

The process for defining the KPIs that will bring the intended insight can be difficult and will certainly be time-consuming. However, if this step is not given the full attention needed, the dashboard will not offer optimal performance and cannot support users in smart decision-making.

dashboards are powerful tools. Sometimes the results or the fear of what the data will show creates conflict. In one case, a healthcare provider found that deploying this technology to track patient satisfaction created an intense backlash from clinicians and an initial distrust of the process. Complete transparency of the initiative and why it is being implemented is an important part of the rollout process.

It is also important to note that because dashboards display critical KPIs in a very straightforward and clear manner, there is a chance that decision-makers may observe trends that put them in a difficult position. The ineffectiveness of a particular part of the organization can be made very obvious and indicate the need to dissolve a department or arrange for a function of the company to be better serviced by alternative means.

dashboards full throttle

It is clear that dashboard technology is taking a larger role in the BI initiatives of organizations. With the amount of data gathered and stored it is imperative that tools designed for the express purpose of providing visual intelligence be seen as a valuable resource, not a toy or an option that may or may not be deployed. Tracking, monitoring and analyzing the information that makes up the backbone of a company is the only way to ensure a business’ ongoing health and prosperity. Visually rich applications that make this insight available in near real-time, drive quick, intelligent decision-making. ■

Shadan Malik, president and CEO of iDashboards, has worked with hundreds of businesses and global enterprises to address their specific needs and architect dashboard solutions for organizational scorecards, finance, operations, customer service, quality control and supply chain.

Dan Germain is senior executive of strategic business development with Alexandria, Virginia-based nonprofit software provider Advanced Solutions International.

introduction feature article industry news rePort case study free demo about us

15

sas founder

SAS Founderbright future for visual data analyticsBy Gary Baldwin | Health data Management | March 28, 2013

Visualization is changing the rules of the game in analytics. no longer do business owners or IT personnel have to wade through spreadsheets or other applications laden with unstructured data to find the proverbial needle in the haystack. Visual data analytics is allowing organizations to do what may have seemed impossible just a few short years ago, but the technology has probably only scratched the surface of its potential to transform business decision making.

emerging visualization tools will offer unprecedented access to data and streamline decision-making, says Jim Goodnight, the founder and CeO of data analytics firm SAS. using visualization tools, end users can create customized reports and display them in a graphical manner, such as pie charts, bar graphs or other visual representations. For Goodnight, the capacity will boost payers’ ability to root out fraud or even map out epidemiological trends.

“You can take billions of rows of data, and in seconds look at anything you want,” he says. “You can look at procedures being done and see what the price differentials are. You can map out epidemiology across a state to see if certain areas are having problems. A payer can see one area of the state that has more medical device claims than other areas, and look for fraud where claims are out of line. Anything you want to do you can do in a second or two.”

SAS is providing analytics services and related visualization services to three states in the process of forming all-payer claims databases mandated by the federal health reform effort, Goodnight says. One of them is north Carolina and the other two are in the final stages of negotiations, he says. Goodnight sees the all-payer databases as offering “a grand opportunity. For the first time in history, you can look at every claim with every payer and see exactly what we spend our money on. You can see which hospitals are charging way too much for a drug. You will be able to explore health data in a way you could never do before.”

Goodnight hopes that one day the united States will create national or even regional clinical outcomes databases similar to the claims databases now emerging at the state level. Such databases would need to be “de-identified,” he says, but could offer insight into pharmaceutical side effects that now take years to understand.

Since Goodnight launched the firm in 1976, SAS has grown to 13,500 international employees, including 6,000 in the u.S. Its analytics software is used by a wide variety of companies, including retailers, banks and insurance companies. ■

introduction feature article industry news sas founder case study free demo about us

16

rePort

Reportintelligence Quarterly: Journal of advanced analytics

1 Bringing big data to life

3 Why your brain needs data visualization

5 Visual analytics supports policy decisions

8 Gain greater customer insight with visual analytics

10 Envision the future with data visualization

12 Free access to valuable census data

14 Visualize this: Snap the big picture into focus

16 Visualizing data makes hearing it easier

18 Spark questions with visual analytics

20 Visual analytics helps solve public complaints

22 Secrets to big data computing

25 The sky is the limit

27 Data visualization made easy

IQ2Q 2O13

Journal of Advanced Analyticsintelligence quarterly

bring big data to life with visual analytics

Intelligence Quarterly, published by SAS, devoted its 2013 second-quarter edition to exploring how visual analytics is helping organizations come to grips with big data and use all that data for unprecedented business benefit. The quarterly report examines visual analytics’ impact from a number of angles, including three key concepts: hyperconnectivity, which changes the boundaries of how information is created, mined and shared; the role that big data is already playing in creating workplaces and communities of mutual dependence; and real-time analytics to help businesses look ahead with insight, rather than reflect upon the past with hindsight.

introduction feature article industry news sas founder rePort free demo about us

17

case study

Case Studylillebaelt Hospital streamlines journal audits using sas® text analytics

Achieving quality control of patient registration records has proven to be a difficult task for the orthopedic surgery department at a leading hospital in denmark. Implementing SAS Text Analytics helped the department to dramatically detect and reduce errors by analyzing surgeons’ dictations into patient records and automatically registering codes aligned with patient diagnosis and treatment.

The department of Orthopedic Surgery at denmark’s Lillebaelt Hospital has given up resource-intensive, manual journal audits and has initiated an IT solution that provides quality control of registrations in all patient records. Previously, 1 percent of the patient records in the department of Orthopedic Surgery at Vejle Hospital, a division of Lillebaelt Hospital, were checked by random sampling during record audits four times a year by a surgeon and a secretary. But even the 160 records that were checked brought limited knowledge to those who made the mistakes, and most important, the quality control was time-consuming.

“We found errors in 33 percent of the records we checked by random sampling,” says Chief Surgeon Sten Larsen. “This meant that we had registered faulty or too few diagnoses or treatments. For example, when a patient with a thigh-bone fracture caught pneumonia during hospitalization, the pneumonia and the treatment of it were too often not registered.”

automated journal audits. The department has implemented the Clinically Correct Time-True Registration system, which automatically analyzes the records of all hospitalized patients. This is done by a text analytics-based solution from SAS. The software analyzes the surgeon’s

dictation in the patient record and automatically registers the code that is connected to the diagnosis and the treatment. Some adaptation has been required to ensure that both danish and Latin terms, abbreviations, etc. are interpreted correctly.

introduction feature article industry news sas founder rePort free demo about us

18

case study

“We have adjusted and tested the system on an ongoing basis. now we are ready to watch it stay the course on a larger amount of records,” says Larsen, who together with Kenneth Seerup Jørgensen, area manager of facility and IT strategy, got the idea for the project. They have both participated during the entire development phase.

Both Larsen and Seerup Jørgensen are evaluating the project to determine how well errors have been caught and fixed and whether this is freeing surgeons to spend more time with patients. “If the project meets our expectations, it can immediately be transferred to other orthopedic surgery departments in the Lillebaelt Hospital group. And with a few adjustments of codes and terminology, it can also be transferred to other surgical departments, where electronic patient records are already in use,” says Seerup Jørgensen.

information basis for other improvements. due to this project, management at Lillebaelt Hospital has prioritized the establishment of a database that can also be used for improvements in other areas. For example, the quality of clinical work can be improved since the procedures and diagnoses described in the electronic patient records are accessible in other systems, thereby forming a better basis for research and further diagnosis.

“Mistakes can be major or minor, significant or insignificant,” says Larsen. “But it is important to remember that all health care policy decisions are based on the statistics that each clinic contributes by registering data. If data is wrong, the basis for decision making is also faulty. Therefore, the Clinically Correct Time-True Registration system makes sense beyond our department and hospital.” ■

The results illustrated in this article are specific to the particular situations, business models, data input and computing environments described herein. Each SAS customer’s experience is unique based on business and technical variables and all statements must be considered non-typical. Actual savings, results and performance characteristics will vary depending on individual customer configurations and conditions. SAS does not guarantee or represent that every customer will achieve similar results. The only warranties for SAS products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements in the written agreement for such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Customers have shared their successes with SAS as part of an agreed-upon contractual exchange or project success summarization following a successful implementation of SAS software. Brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.

Case Studylillebaelt Hospital streamlines journal audits using sas® text analytics (COnTInued)

“If data is wrong, the basis for decision making is also faulty. The Clinically Correct Time-True Registration system makes sense beyond our department and hospital.”

—Sten Larsen, Chief Surgeon, Lillebaelt Hospital

introduction feature article industry news sas founder rePort case study about us

19

free demo

Free demothe role of Visual analytics in disease management

The exceedingly complex relationships between diseases, therapies and patients pose constant challenges for the health care industry—from health insurers looking to improve the health of (and minimize costs for) member populations, to government agencies developing proactive approaches, to protecting and promoting public health, to clinical researchers trying to find the best course of therapy.

This demo shows how SAS Visual Analytics explores potential linkages between renal disease and Type 2 diabetes.

introduction feature article industry news sas founder rePort case study free demo

20

about us

About Us

Providing organizations with the Power to Know® since 1976.

SAS helps organizations anticipate and optimize business opportunities. We do this through advanced analytics that turns data about customers, performance, financials and more into meaningful information. The result? Fact-based decisions for undeniable bottom line impact— this is how we transform the way our customers do business.

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. 106974_S120045.0214