I love my job, but I am not a morning person so I need a bit of inspiration to get out of bed. I’ve been a marketer for more than 15 years, and that inspiration has never been easier to find than since I joined SAS as an industry marketer for the global health and life sciences practice. That’s because every day I learn about the ways data and analytics are transforming health care around the world.
Recently we explored the topic of health care convergence. Traditionally, this is about collaboration and consolidation between providers and the entities who pay for health care. For example, health plans with their own providers. This is an important evolution in the industry, but I would argue that the kind of transformation that is needed to solve the global health care crisis is going to require more. We need greater convergence between providers and payers, absolutely, but we also need patients and the pharmaceutical/medical device industries in the equation.
We already have all the information we need to revolutionize health care for the betterment of patients around the world. THAT is inspiring. But, putting all of that information together is a huge challenge. Real world data and real world evidence play a critical role. Real world data is simply all data outside of controlled clinical trials, including data from electronic medical records, claims and billing data, environmental data, genomic data, and even data from wearable devices and social media.
The possibilities are endless when we can derive actionable insights from real world data. For example, real world data and artificial intelligence are being used to reduce the length of the drug discovery process, drive decision-making in health care to deliver the right therapy to the right patient at the right time, and to identify anomalies that could indicate abuse or over-prescribing of opioids.
A great example of what it looks like when all of this comes together in the right way is The Healthy Nevada Project. It’s a large scale population health study utilizing genetic, environmental, outcomes and demographic data. The project is changing the face of medicine, allowing providers to identify patients who are vulnerable to disease and deliver targeted, personalized medicine that is truly life changing.
To learn more, check out our webinar, where Jim Metcalf, Chief Data Scientist on The Healthy Nevada Project joins SAS’ Sherrine Eid and myself to discuss the project and health care convergence.
