黑料传送门

If you鈥檙e looking for a major vein in healthcare transformation today, you鈥檒l find big data pulsating throughout the industry. And behind that, you鈥檒l find the healthcare data analyst organizing and interpreting it into solutions that change how health is treated and diseases are cured.

This type of healthcare professional didn鈥檛 exist a few years ago, according to Diana L. Gardner, MBA-HM, RHIA, FACMPE, CPC, Course Faculty, College of Health Professions at Western Governors University (黑料传送门.) Today鈥檚 healthcare data analysts work with numbers in ways that healthcare statisticians in the past couldn鈥檛 before the digital age. Now they serve as the bridge between health researchers and the frontline healthcare providers.

鈥淭he healthcare data analyst doesn鈥檛 have patient-facing responsibilities,鈥� says Gardner, a certified professional coder. She鈥檚 also an instructor in 黑料传送门鈥檚 B.S. Health Information Management program, which is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM.) 鈥淩ather they analyze, interpret, and transform data into information that can provide actionable insights for physicians, clinical researchers, and healthcare decision makers. They will create the next generation of healthcare strategists who help us find cures for cancer and the common cold, and all points in between.鈥�

Gardner was the first 黑料传送门 Bachelor of Health Informatics graduate to sit for and obtain her Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA.) She also holds an MBA in Healthcare Management from 黑料传送门, and a Fellow of the American College of Medical Practice Executives (FACMPE) from the Medical Group Managers Association. Now she trains students with her field experience, including her prior experience with managing banks. When healthcare models started to change in the 1990s, she saw how she could transfer her business skills to healthcare.聽 聽聽

鈥淓very healthcare physician, every hospital used to be an island of their own,鈥� said Gardner. 鈥淏ut then the healthcare world caught on to the fact that healthcare is actually a business and if they were going to be able to afford healthcare for people, they had to run it like a business. And we can鈥檛 run it like a business unless we鈥檙e collecting data.鈥�

That鈥檚 where the financial return on investment on healthcare data analysts comes in for healthcare businesses and organizations, according to Gardner. Once the data is converted to health information, analysts actually convert it into cash by helping organizations stay out of trouble with compliance and penalties, 鈥渁nd jail time鈥攂ecause no one looks good in an orange jumpsuit,鈥� she laughs.

Healthcare data analysts have no need for the white physician coats, either; they don鈥檛 need medical backgrounds to do the job. Once they gather the research and the causes of diseases, they examine what can be learned from it and pass that onto the providers.

鈥淚t鈥檚 asking: 鈥榳hat can we learn from this little pocket of the world to help this other little pocket of the world save time, money and lives?鈥欌�� explains Gardner. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what created the field of analyzing data and a demand for the minds who can do it.鈥�

Here鈥檚 the three healthcare focus areas Gardner says will largely benefit from healthcare data analysts in the next few years:

• The Cancer Moonshot program
• Telemedicine
• Support for the Center for Disease Control (CDC)

1. The Cancer Moonshot program: President Barak Obama initiated this program in 2016 to accelerate cancer research and increase cancer treatment availability to patients. The goal of this program is to accomplish 10 years of cancer research in five years. 鈥淎nalysts are going to be at the forefront of this,鈥� says Gardner. 鈥淭hey are going to take data from hospitals, physician practices, cancer registries, research labs, patients and put all that data in one big pocket and analyze it. And that鈥檚 going to mean more to the cure instead of the trickles of information we get about the disease now.鈥�
   
   
2. Telemedicine: 鈥淵ou have places all over the U.S. that are isolated鈥攕mall rural hospitals and prison infirmaries, that need specialists,鈥� says Gardner. 鈥淭elemedicine is going to let them have access to specialists in a timely manner if data analysts do their homework upfront to show this is needed.鈥�
   
   There鈥檚 already 鈥渄ata warehouses鈥� identifying Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) throughout the country. But healthcare data analysts, says Gardner, will pinpoint exactly which specialists are needed in which of those areas.
   
   鈥淒ifferent health risks and diseases tend to be geographic and that鈥檚 what the data analysts job is going to be鈥攍ocate the right specialists to dial into that area.鈥� she says. 鈥淚n other words, they鈥檒l say we need to put $30 thousand to equipment in this tiny hospital so that someone from John Hopkins can virtually sit in on the conversation with the patient and diagnose the heart problems.鈥�
   
   
3. Support the Center for Disease Control (CDC): Healthcare data analysts will be the medical equivalent of a weather forecaster, isolating waves of diseases to support the CDC on being proactive with vaccines. 鈥淭hey鈥檒l say 鈥榶ou鈥檒l need to get this amount of small pox vaccine into this part of the country; you need to be sure that you have the Ebola vaccine over here,鈥� and not only will they work with the CDC, they鈥檒l work with hospitals and ERs and warn them which major illness is about to hit their ER departments,鈥� says Gardner.

The number of non-doctor workers in the health industry has exploded in the last two decades, according to a recent article in The Atlantic, making the healthcare industry the largest employer in the U.S. According to Gardner, healthcare data analysts are part of the healthcare support occupations that will grow exponentially in the coming years (23.6 percent,) along with healthcare practitioners and technical occupations (15.3 percent.) These are projected to be among the fastest growing occupational groups during the 2016鈥�26 projections decade, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

An executive report by Dr. John Haughom, Paul Horstmeier, John Wadsworth, Russ Staheli and Leslie Hough Falk for HealthCatalyst says that as analytics is increasingly recognized as a critical enabler of healthcare transformation, the role of data analyst has taken center stage with most healthcare organizations and businesses. Ninety percent surveyed view analytics as 鈥渆xtremely important鈥� or 鈥渧ery important鈥� to their organization within the next 1-3 years.

鈥淢any people [in the healthcare industry] don鈥檛 know how much healthcare data analysts are needed yet, but those who decide to move into this area of work are going to see their salaries jump $20 thousand a year,鈥� says Gardner. The average salary for healthcare data analysts, she says, is about $70k per year.

Just as healthcare data analysts become more important in developing quality improvement strategies in health care systems, the need for a highly skilled workforce in this area will increase also, as the HealthCatalyst report indicates. The report says that currently, healthcare data analysts spend more time gathering data, than analyzing it, proving that analysts鈥� abilities to gather data will not be enough.

鈥淭o deliver their true value, analysts need to spend the majority of their time analyzing data,鈥� it says. 鈥淭he flow of data is becoming the lifeblood of organizations鈥攁nd deriving meaningful insights from this data will be the key to survival in a changing industry.鈥�

Gardner says the value in healthcare data analysts goes even beyond their ability to analyze data鈥攖hey must have critical thinking skills.

鈥淵ou can analyze data all day long, but you must be able to see how it correlates to healthcare,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e can teach people how to code and use internet programs, but they have to have the 鈥減eople鈥� thought processing abilities, too.鈥�

Ultimately, with those skills, the future healthcare data analyst will obtain CHDA (Certified Healthcare Data Analyst) certification. According to Jasmine Agnew, MTS, MHIIM, RHIA, Curriculum Program Manager, Health Information Management at 黑料传送门, a bachelor鈥檚 or master鈥檚 degree in healthcare information management, from an accredited school, can help them prepare for that.

鈥淪tudents will study data analysis, data governance, and data interpretation in healthcare information programs,鈥� says Agnew. 鈥淚f students start with a non-patient facing associate degree, industry certifications, or healthcare related experience, the BS in health information management would be an excellent choice to pursue work as a healthcare data analyst.鈥�