Analytics driven application development for healthcare organizations

In response to governmental and regulatory mandates, Healthcare organizations are increasingly interested in assessing the efficiency of their care processes and services. Traditional information systems for healthcare have focused on capturing administrative details related to services and resource usage on a departmental or healthcare provider basis. The resulting interoperability challenges make it difficult for analytics and performance management reporting to provide a detailed view of care processes. This paper presents a methodology and an analytics application framework that focuses on performance and efficiency. Starting from performance goals, the application framework development is driven by the identified key performance indicators. This methodology addresses interoperability challenges by defining the minimal dataset required for measuring outcomes of a care process. It enables an information system design that focuses on analytics and minimizes maintenance and integration issues. The application framework is developed in the context of a multi-year case study of a clinical information system for palliative care.