What would happen if we could ask any type of scientific or clinical question about patients, and then go out and find the data to answer our questions? With "real-world data," we can do just that. Real-world data is all medicinal product data that comes from real-life patients. In contrast,
In recent healthcare blogs I’ve looked at the need to drive more value from the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and how this relies upon the ability to make decisions based on robust, data-driven insights. But what value will these decisions have if they're not founded on a mature data
Stretches the hips, ankles and shoulders while opening chest and lengthening spine. Cow Face Pose (Sanskrit: Gomukhasana)
Have you ever been involved in executing an exploratory analysis based on an integrated clinical trial database? If so, you've probably experienced firsthand how elaborate the initial phase of data access and data processing can be. Market analysts estimate the ratio for preparing the data, compared to actually analyzing the information,
Real world data collected in a functioning health care setting instead of a controlled clinical environment can provide opportunities for new and deeper insights across life science and health care organizations. However, managing, analyzing and extracting actionable information from the varied available sources can present unique challenges. The sheer size of these
Did you know that socks are one of the most needed but least donated items at homeless shelters? Or that 4,000 people will experience homelessness each year in Wake County alone? To bring awareness to this need and to encourage YOU to make a difference by donating socks to your local
Historically, generations could expect to experience one – maybe at best – major technology disruption or transformation in their lifetime. That’s simply not the case today. Today it is more difficult than ever before to know what will transform the technology landscape in the next month or the next year.
There’s been an uptick recently in corporations working together to improve patient experiences and even saves lives. From the recent buzz about drug developers coming together to combat Alzheimer’s, to health systems opening data to researchers, companies realize that partnering just might produce the greatest impact.
SAS is widely used in clinical research activities including: Managing and transforming data. Generating tabular and graphical summaries. Performing powerful statistical analyses such as safety and efficacy evaluations. In addition, SAS provides a number of interfaces from which a user can select to work with the data. One of these
The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) Confederation has done lots of great research on how to enhance decision making so that every decision delivers greater value to patients (in terms of clinical outcome) and to health care organisations (in terms of operational effectiveness). In its most recent report on this
In my previous post, I wrote about the Quick Pulse survey of leaders of health care institutions and the vital role data and analytics has in patient care and engagement. In this post, I'll tell you what the survey had to say about the progress these leaders believe they are
The expletive leapt from the lips of the orthopedic surgeon as he entered my hospital room. He was swathed in a green gown, purple gloves, and a white surgical mask – for his protection, not mine. He was clearly upset. “What, exactly, does $#@! mean?” I asked. “It means you’re
Right now, National Health Service (NHS) managers and clinicians in the UK are under phenomenal pressure to find big efficiency savings while improving the value of services to patients. Many in the NHS see integrated care as the answer. But the first step is finding innovative ways to increase the
Everyone in health care is talking about data and analytics these days and the vendor world has shifted into overdrive. So what is really going on in the trenches, and what does this mean for the future? Does this mean that we will finally find the holy grail of information-driven
Lately I've seen several articles about drug overdose deaths being on the increase. But I didn't really like the graphs in those articles, so I tried to create some better ones using SAS ... For example, here's a map from the National Center for Health Statistics website (see the 3rd dashboard/tab
If you're a worrier, you know there's a chance you could get bitten by a shark, or hit by a piece of falling satellite debris - these events are both possible, but not probable. Getting injured by a lawn mower, on the other hand, is something that could easily happen. With
The World Health Organization recently declared the Zika virus a global public health emergency. This virus is spread by certain mosquitoes, and therefore if we know where those mosquitoes are located, then we've got a pretty good idea of where the virus might spread. Before we get to the numbers, here
Health care is undergoing exponential change, and this year we’ll continue to see the industry launch bold missions to improve the patient experience. With new types of data and technologies, the vision of making health care more personalized and proactive is becoming closer to reality. In my new book “The
Earlier this month I attended my first Forbes Healthcare Summit, where the stated goal for this year was to “figure out how to create the kind of care we know we deserve.” The event offered a unique gathering of pharmaceutical, health care and biotechnology chief executives engaged in frank discussions
We have all heard many times about how much the US spends on health care each year. But let’s hear it again . . . because it is staggering: According to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), in 2013, the national health expenditure (NHE) grew to $2.9 trillion. That
To prepare for the data challenges of 2015 and beyond, health care fraud, waste and abuse investigative units (government funded and commercial insurance plans, alike) need a data management infrastructure that provides access to data across programs, products and channels. This goes well beyond sorting and filtering small sets of
More and more of my friends seem to be eating less and less meat, for various reasons (such as religious, health, social conscience, weight loss, personal preference, cost savings, etc). So I thought I would put together a graph to help them find alternate sources of protein. While searching for
Big data is here to stay, whether we like it or not. Regardless of how you feel about it, it can help solve problems which simply could not be addressed without big data and advanced analytics. One area in which big data and analytics can provide huge benefits is the medical arena. In a recent
Healthcare IT News recently published an article on 18 health technologies poised for big growth, a list culled from a HIMSS database. The database is used to track an extensive list of technology products that have seen growth of 4-10 percent since 2010, but have not yet reached a 70
The Wall Street Journal recently published a study of the top 17 medical areas (or body parts) that venture capitalist investments are likely to benefit. They used graphs to summarize the results, but "the graph guy" in me just couldn't resist trying to improve them. Did my improvements help? -
When I was a kid, I remember a motivational poster on my dentist's wall that said "You don't have to brush all your teeth -- only the ones you want to keep." That poster really made me think, and brush my teeth! And now that I'm a data-analyst adult, I think
Nope - we're not digging up mummies in pyramids and analyzing the gender - this blog is about population pyramid charts and "digging into data"! But since the title might have lured in some pyramid fans, here's a picture of my friend Angela posing beside a pyramid - pretty cool, eh?!?
A recent study by Bai & Anderson has found that some hospitals charge 10x (ie, 1000%) higher than the standard rates set by Medicare. Many news agencies have posted the list of the 50 US hospitals that have the highest markup. But I am more visually oriented, so of course I used SAS
Have you ever been bitten by a mosquito? What are the odds it carried the West Nile virus? ... Perhaps a lot higher than you thought! Here's a picture of a mosquito that kept 'bugging' me around my computer desk at home - good riddance, I say!
I guess most of us have a morbid curiosity about how we're going to die ... which is probably why Francis Boscoe's Causes of Death map went viral (no pun intended, of course!). This blog post shows how to create such a map... But first, to lighten up the mood a bit
