Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

42 DATA ANALYTICS & INFORMATICS How Mayo Clinic uses data to improve surgical outcomes: 4 insights By Hannah Mitchell R ochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic has developed an approach using clinical databases to improve surgi- cal outcomes that can be applied at other hospitals, according to a Sept. 30 Harvard Business Review report. Many health systems are underutilizing clinical registries, according to the report. Mayo Clinic's database collects infor- mation, such as surgical procedures and patient-reported outcomes. Mayo Clinic's Department of Neurologic Surgery used these databases to identify areas that needed improvement: the quality of its surgeries and cost effectiveness. To create a similar approach, Mayo Clinic shared four insights from their program: 1. Secure the funding needed for the life of the project. Mayo Clinic had already invested in developing a clinical regis- try infrastructure within neurosurgery. However, it cost an additional $1.5 mil- lion over a five-year period to create a dashboard designed to inform business operations and contracts with payers. 2. Create an interdisciplinary team of talent. Mayo Clinic assembled a team of experts in supply chain, IT, clinical, administrative, finance and quality reporting experts. Every hospital that performs complex neurosurgery was represented. Since many of the team members didn't know each other, Mayo Clinic engaged in months-long initia- tives to develop an understanding of a common purpose between them. 3. Develop predictive analytics. Mayo Clinic developed a predictive tool called the neurosurgical risk calculator. e cal- culator enables the physician and patient to predict operation risks so they can discuss options, estimate risks and more. 4. Ensure the data is being used. To ensure the data is used, neurosurgery depart- ment chairs must solicit research propos- als for department faculty periodically. Mayo Clinic also uses the data to gain competitive contracts with employers and payers by using the data to compare their surgery outcomes with national bench- marks. It has also resulted in an increase in patient referrals from payers. n Missouri Hospital Association's data arm launches health equity dashboards: 3 details By Hannah Mitchell T he Missouri Hospital Association launched a data dashboard Oct. 11 that displays details of health inequities by ZIP code, symptom and prevalence, according to details shared with Becker's. Three details: 1. The dashboard hosts the data from 41 million hos- pital claims of 5.5 million patients. Data is available from fiscal year 2018 to the fiscal year 2020. 2. Users can filter the dashboard by condition and parameters to target interventions. For example, if a specific neighborhood noted higher emergency de- partment use for pediatric asthma patients, officials can intervene to determine a cause, a spokesperson told Becker's. 3. The tool can also offer insight into whether a condi- tion affects a certain gender or age range more than other demographics so officials can build commu- nity-based interventions based on that information, according to the spokesperson. n CDC to use deidentified data from 5 million patients to research COVID-19 By Hannah Mitchell T he CDC selected PointClickCare, a healthcare cloud company, to provide datasets to give insights that help researchers learn more about COVID-19. Three details: 1. PointClickCare has data on more than 5 million pa- tients, according to an Oct. 12 news release. Point- ClickCare will provide the CDC with deidentified patient data from residents of long-term and post- acute care facilities. 2. The CDC will use the data to address public health priorities, analyze disease patterns, evaluate treat- ments and more. 3. "Through this collaboration, CDC will have access to scarcely available datasets that, through analysis, can uncover unique insights into the health of older adults and those who are at greater risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19," said Jason Menges, vice president of national accounts at PointClickCare. n

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