At HMS, we sit at an interesting intersection. We have the industry's most accurate and current masterfile, which contains profile information for all of the healthcare providers in the U.S. It also contains information on every organization (e.g. hospital), and all the affiliations between all of those entities.
We color that picture with medical claims data, which allows us to identify networks of influence and key opinion leaders. (i.e. which doctors are the most influential?) We further overlay that with sales data to identify under served markets, etc. Then we add in social data, expense information, real estate information, quality metrics, etc... Anything and everything related to healthcare.
You get the picture.
We quite literally sit at the crossroads of over two thousand sources of healthcare data. To tame those sources, I'm confident we have put together one of the best data integration and analytic platforms available. Even with that, somedays I come to work and I feel like a butterfly caught in a chaotic shit-storm of messy data. Other days I come to work and feel like Cypher sitting in front of a dripping screen of ones and zeros. But instead of seeing blondes and brunettes, I see huge potential: opportunities to control costs, optimize sales operations, enable transparency, eliminate fraud, waste and abuse, and improve the health of vast populations of people.
I've spent the day at the HealthImpact conference in NYC, and it's exciting to be sitting at the center of two tends/markets: Big Data and HealthCare. Articles like this one that hint at the potential:
http://www.informationweek.com/government/big-data-analytics/agencies-see-big-data-as-cure-for-healthcare-ills/d/d-id/1127924
If we get things right, we will change the world. And if we get things wrong, we can still save tax payers, our partners, and patients millions and millions of dollars. ;)
