Surgical Complication Rates and the New Data Perspective

By JORDAN SHLAIN, MD  + (UPDATED) In an age where the importance of data, statistics and predictive modeling win big games for baseball teams and make fat money for high-frequency traders, we are at the dawn of a new age of transparency in healthcare  It behooves every actor, in every sector, to use this new perspective to constructively illuminate best practices and design an infrastructure for true operational, clinical and logistic efficiencies at large scale and the local level – all in the spirit of getting the patient the best outcome.    Every modern industry uses ‘big data’ to understand  the dynamics of their market landscape. This in turn, enables them to make decisions and develop strategies for gaining market share and building their brands. Fortress medicine has received a shot over the bow regarding the power of this new data perspective and needs to craft visionary, courageous yet mindful strategies that includes the bright light of outcomes into their private practices, clinics and large institutions. Propublica, in a seminal article, Making the Cut, shows us the power of transparency in complications rates during surgery. Doctors and their patients, since the dawn of medicine, have existed in a world without clarity around outcomes – there was not way to meaningfully collect it and analyze it. What Yelp has done for small business and Zagat has done for fine restaurants, CMS just did for the medical profession….and it j...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: THCB Source Type: blogs