Iona College has lofty goals for its new Center for Health Care Analytics within the Hagan School of Business.
Not only do college officials hope to teach MBA students analytic skills needed to secure management jobs at hospitals and other health institutions, they also hope to create a regional database to better understand disease progression and how providers make decisions.
With such a database, health providers and insurers could begin to examine more effective ways to reduce health care costs and offer preventative care, said Paul Savage, director of the new center.
Using historical data of similar patients in the region, for instance, doctors could prevent future ailments by providing patients more accurate predictions of what will happen if treatments are not followed closely. Armed with more detailed information, a diabetic patient might be more compelled to exercise to prevent a heart attack or stroke, Savage said.
“If providers and patients work together, for decades, in controlling more minor conditions, it”™s possible to prevent more serious conditions,” said Savage, who also serves as Iona”™s program director of health care management.
Some of the responsibility of lowering health care costs has shifted to health providers and insurers, Savage said. But with occasional competing interests, the two will need an objective source of information, he said. That”™s where academia can play a role.
Each institution has its own patient records, but by compiling a larger, statewide dataset, a more accurate picture can be painted. Whereas the NYU Langone Medical Center might have 3 million patient records, Savage has already compiled a database of 180 million records, primarily from state billing records.
Savage said he plans to apply for several research grants.
“To change the marketplace and get them integrated together, all of the players will need to better understand the market, progression of disease and the decision network of all providers,” Savage said. “This isn”™t just one magical piece of software or tool, but the integration of many, many tools.”
Savage said his intent is to partner with several other academic institutions including Mercy College, Pace University, New York Medical College and Fordham University on the project. The University of New Hampshire built a similar medical database for states in the Northeast. Johns Hopkins University has done the same for Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Business schools have increasingly emphasized the importance of analytics across every industry. Savage said Iona”™s Center for Health Care Analytics would likely be the first of many industry specific centers to open at Hagan.
Officials said they hope the center will cater to the needs of those in governance, regulatory and clinical leadership positions. The center will initially complement the school”™s health care management program, but will also likely offer two new specialty certificates in health care analytics related to physician decisions and institutional planning.
“There”™s going to be changes in planning and financing in the industry and we want to prepare our students in that direction,” Savage said.
