Make Medicine Better

I recently returned from a customer advisory board of a predictive analytic software company. It seems to me that many other for-profit industries are already using predictive software to increase ROI and reduce costs within their organization. It also seems to me that health care is still working at simple reporting of the descriptives of what is happening, and not anywhere near being able to make predictions about the future using readily available data.

Am I completely off-base with this statement? There were many health care organizations at this event speaking about the same concerns. I think a large investment in such an undertaking would have a greater long-term impact on patient care while reducing costs for the organizations and patients. Surely this is something that could be of great value as we enter into the health care reform era.

I’d be happy to discuss my thoughts with anyone interested in this topic, and share what I’ve learned about the possibilities. I’d also like to hear if predictive analysis is being done and what sorts of impacts it is having.