Differentiating Signal From Noise With Data

Data is king in healthcare. There are multiple sources of data coming in from EMRs, home health devices, physician offices and more. So how does Aerial help care managers take this tsunami of data and separate the signal from the noise, drilling down to the information and data sets needed to really take care of a patient?

By Medecision

We all know the importance of data in healthcare. Data analytics can drive better decision-making, improve the overall quality of patient care, identify at-risk patients and improve patient engagement. However, the sheer amount of data to sift through is mind-boggling. Data comes from multiple sources, including medical records, patient surveys, administrative databases, home health devices and more. It also comes in multiple formats. For example, radiologists use images, physician offices may still have old records in paper formats, and electronic medical records (EMRs) can contain hundreds of rows of data points.

With so much data at our fingertips, it is impossible to manually sift through it and access the insights that are needed the most. In addition, it can be expensive to ingest all these different types (and formats) of data directly without a partner and a bigger strategy. In order to manage the health and well-being of members and patients, payers and providers need sophisticated solutions that can ingest all the different types of data and deliver insights and drive the next action for care managers.

Medecision’s Aerial platform provides care managers with the data they need—such as clinical data, pharmaceutical data, social determinants of health and more. The robust care intelligence engine, which is offered in our Insights platform and enhanced in our next-generation Aerial platform, allows Aerial users to choose from a library of useful clinical intelligence rules and identify high-risk or rising-risk patients.

Aerial also assists care managers in addressing the whole person, including the behavioral and social determinants that prevent even the best medical care from being effective. Aerial can help care managers:

• Identify at-risk patients. With data analytics, care managers can identify both high-risk and rising-risk individuals to participate in a care management program. Because Aerial integrates all types of data, including social determinants of health, care managers can better understand an individual’s health and plan an effective intervention.
• Provide better care for patients with chronic conditions. Today’s care management paradigm causes care managers to open and close cases based on specific events—but that’s just not suitable for chronic condition care management. However, with the Aerial care management platform, care managers can keep individuals’ cases open continuously—monitoring all members all the time. Real-time data events, driven by the robust customizable rules engine, alert care managers of members who need to be prioritized, bringing them to the top of the care manager’s action list.
• Collaborate across the care continuum. If a member checks into the emergency department, a real-time data trigger places a task notification on the care manager’s list. The care manager can reach out to the emergency department to offer background information and, potentially, offer home services in place of an admission. The care manager can also communicate with physician offices to ensure that everyone involved in the member’s care has access to all the relevant information.
• Drive patient engagement. Engaging patients to become more proactive in their own health can identify potential issues before they become problems requiring more intensive (and expensive) treatment. Making sure they are properly taking their medications, for example, or scheduling and keeping regular appointments reduces the chances that their conditions will worsen. With access to the right data, patients are reminded of their own role in staying healthy.

These are just a few examples of how a high-quality data solution such as Aerial can help providers do their jobs more efficiently and effectively while engaging patients to take responsibility for their own health. To learn more about Aerial or to request a demo, click here.