Analytics Spreads Widely Throughout Healthcare, Offering Hope of Transformation

It has been decades since many experts were satisfied with the state of healthcare in the United States. Although a range of clinical outcomes remains among the most impressive in the world, quite a few others now lag standards significantly. At the same time, the cost problems that have so long plagued healthcare in the United States are even more menacing than before.

For many years, then, experts have sought ways to set off the fundamental kinds of transformation that the system seems to need so badly. Unfortunately, few have had much in the way of success, with the tools needed to prosecute such an enormous undertaking simply not being available, in most cases.

That is now starting to change, however. Thanks to the introduction of sophisticated, computer-based analytic approaches to the problem, experts are beginning to develop the kinds of insights that can produce truly fundamental transformation. While it is clear that the path will be long and Health Catalyst difficult, there is now reason to believe that some of the longest-held and dearest goals of the industry are now possible to reach.

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That can be seen in a list of the Best Healthcare Analytics Conferences in 2015, a group of meetings the variety and wealth of which is itself a sign of the changes to come. Even a few short years ago, analytics was still viewed within the industry as something of a fringe undertaking, but it has now firmly entered the mainstream. With virtually every health organization of any note now pursuing its own analytics-oriented goals, it is clear that these powerful tools are finally here to stay.

At least one Healthcare Analytics Summit 2015 will host, for example, includes appearances by some of the nation’s most notoriously conservative health groups. As even these former holdouts have come aboard with the promise of analytic approaches for healthcare transformation, it can fairly be assumed that most of their peers are, as well.

Further evidence can be seen in the range of vendors attending such events. At the HAS ’15 Healthcare Analytics Summit, for example, a number of companies that formerly confined themselves to providing simple, HIPAA-compliant software tools now have much more ambitious offerings to show off. While not every such company necessary aims at supplying the whole range of contemporary analytic tools, the simple fact that the status quo is expanding so quickly is another sign of the transformation that is now going on.