The first thing you’ll realize as you start reading this: you already know infinitely more about the healthcare industry than I do. I not only admit this freely, but I think it’s an important distinction to be made. Furthermore, it’s one that might make my perspective a touch unique.
My world has never existed in the ever-consuming universe of healthcare. The people I work with have experiences that would take me lifetimes to comb through. Frankly, what I don’t know is embarrassing when I think about the knowledge they consider commonplace. As an inside-company joke at a previous employer, we welcomed new colleagues to “Acronym-Hell”. The past few months in the healthcare realm has made me realize that we got off light. This might be the 7th level.
I’m A Data Guy
The question you’re likely asking yourself right now: “Why am I still reading this if he knows nothing of Healthcare?”
Frankly, that’s a completely valid question and I applaud your patience. The simple answer would be “Data”. See, I’m a data guy. I love it. Knowledge and info and numbers, oh my! My acronym background is rooted in knowing what things like JSON, XML and MSSME represent. The processes and functions of how things actually work fascinates me. The symphonic ebbs and flows of how relational databases sing in the universal harmony that is sneakily present in everything IT. All that melodic data is generated by everyone all the time and it dances in the æther of the world just waiting for someone to come along to decipher the meaning.
For instance, by simply reading this blog post, information and knowledge are being generated on such a scale that it’s hard to fathom. Data points are recorded on how often traffic is directed to this page. From where the traffic originated. How long a reader stayed here, willing to suffer through reading a blog by an IT guy that is meandering to his point. Even down to the type of device being using to read it. All that mess is evoked by the few minutes spent here.
Moreover, it’s all someplace to reference, if you know how to look. Multiply that single page view by hundreds and thousands of other views and what started as a solo data point, becomes an overwhelming fugue in a short span of time. Amongst this chaotic symphony exists crescendos and diminuendos of pure, raw, philharmonic metadata. Hidden in the noise is a potential composition of 22nd century gold.
Therein lies the problem: it’s simply potential. The companies that act on that potential? Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook. Those five companies collectively racked up over $25bn dollars of net profit in the first quarter of 2017. Was it because they guessed their next move and got lucky? Or was it because they polled results from petabytes of data they generate? Finding the most profitable, logical, and savvy way to improve on their fiscal models. Granularly sifting through who or what contributed positively and who wasn’t quite pulling their weight. Fact is, all those companies took the potential of analytics from the data they had, acted on that potential and realized it.
Healthcare – A Universe of Analytical Opportunities
This brings me to what brings you here: healthcare. No doubt, I’m the last person who needs to trumpet the potential of analytics to you. From my perspective, I see healthcare as a universe of analytical opportunities. On the whole, your organization captures ludicrous amounts of information every single day. You know this better than anyone.. Being someone with access to all that information, you want to exploit all this beautiful knowledge. Being a data guy, I want to help you.
It’s worth asking yourself if the best decisions for your organization are being made given the wealth of data you have access to. More sobering: what decisions are being made without the advantage of looking at the refined data? What opportunities to make things faster, better, stronger are falling by the wayside? Personally, those questions horrify me. Not because I’m not happy with how I do things, but because the mind wanders around the improvements I could be making if I knew more. The chance to maximize what is available to me while I still have the chance to do it.
CMS.GOV lists 432 acronyms beginning with the letter “P” alone. I’m fairly certain that everyone else here knows them all. Speaking for myself, I know we have the SME’s building CRM’s in SFDC to utilize the data you already have. My unique “IT guy” perspective wants desperately to help you take advantage of every byte that otherwise might go overlooked.
You know your organization works, let us help you find out how much better your organization could be working.
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