Collaboration To Improve Healthcare Via Technology Launched
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Independence Blue Cross and Drexel University are teaming up to tacking innovation in healthcare.
The Independence Blue Cross (Independence) Center for Health Care Innovation and Drexel University have announced a partnership to engage in research to leverage technology to improve the delivery of health care.
Researchers are currently evaluating a number of possible research areas, including identifying Independence members at risk for hospitalization and re-hospitalization, as well as identifying members who would benefit from Independence’s chronic disease outreach programs and applying machine learning techniques to unstructured data, such as notes from members’ interactions with doctors and other health professionals to predict future health problems or customer service issues as explained by MedCity News.
The researchers are also evaluating health interventions that can reduce the number of avoidable emergency department visits, improve the detection of fraudulent claims, predict when fraud is likely to occur, and develop strategies to help members protect their medical identity.
“The future of health care is dependent upon finding new ways to use technology and information to predict illness and prevent health problems before they develop,” said Independence President and CEO Daniel J. Hilferty. “This exciting, new research initiative, with one of our region’s premier universities, will help us discover and expand ways to improve health outcomes, lower health care costs and enrich our members’ health care experience.”
“We are pleased to expand our partnership with Independence Blue Cross and help apply analytics expertise to the challenges of health care,” said Drexel University President John A. Fry. “Working alongside one of the key players in health care in the region, Drexel has the opportunity to advance our goal of improving the quality of life for Philadelphians.”
Somesh Nigam, PhD, Independence’s senior vice president and chief informatics officer, said “We’re already seeing some impressive early results from informatics projects we’ve designed, as well other research partnerships we’ve initiated, to improve our members’ health. We’re going to see tremendous growth in machine learning and predictive analytics over the next few years, and it’s very exciting for Independence to be at the center of that work.”
Nigam added that all patient data that Independence supplies will comply with HIPAA regulations and will be securely maintained at all times.