Much room for data analytics growth in healthcare

Only 10 percent of providers surveyed are using advanced tools for data collection with analytics and predictive capabilities, according to findings from audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG.

KPMG surveyed 271 healthcare professionals. Twenty-one percent said they are still "planning their journey." Sixteen percent said they are using data in strategic decision making, 28 percent are relying on data warehouses to track key performance indicators, and 24 percent are using data marts. 

"Many organizations are not where they need to be in leveraging this technology," said Bharat Rao, PhD, KPMG's national leader for healthcare and life sciences

data analytics. "Healthcare organizations need to employ new approaches to examining healthcare data to uncover patterns about cost and quality, which includes safety, to make better informed decisions."

Survey respondents identified the following benefits from data and analytics: 34 percent said business intelligence, 27 percent said improving clinical outcomes and 24 percent said lowering costs. Life sciences companies see the biggest benefit from business intelligence (56 percent), health plans cite lowering costs (35 percent) and providers cite improved clinical outcomes (32 percent) and business intelligence (29 percent).

According to the survey, barriers include unstandardized data in silos (37 percent), lack of technology infrastructure (17 percent) and data and analytic skills gaps (15 percent).