The article’s title, “Data Utilization Tips for Healthcare Association Members.”

3 Data Utilization Tips for Healthcare Association Members

Data is an invaluable asset for decision-making in any sector. Considering that the healthcare industry produces approximately 30% of the world’s data, health professionals are well-equipped to make informed, reliable decisions.

Here’s the kicker: The value you derive from your data depends on the way you collect, manage, and analyze it. If you’re a healthcare association leader, it isn’t enough to simply advise members to use their data—you need to explain how they should use it. 

In this guide, we’ll cover a few practical ways your healthcare association can train its members to use data wisely and glean meaningful insights from it. More than teaching members how to put their data to work, these tips will help you steward relationships with members who value relevant, actionable insights.

Aggregate and Organize Data

Imagine you’re writing a review of a movie, but you only watched one scene. Or, let’s say you stopped reading a book after finishing the first chapter. Would you feel prepared to summarize the plot to a friend?

Just as you can’t fully analyze a movie or a book without having all of the necessary information, health data won’t provide useful insights without comprehensive and accurate data points.

According to Arcadia, healthcare data aggregation is the process of consolidating different data into one place. By enabling health professionals to review data in its full context, this practice helps to identify widespread patterns and trends, plan next actions accordingly, and even forecast future events to allow for early interventions.

Here are a few ways to educate association members on aggregating health data effectively:

  • Provide data platform recommendations. We’ll cover training association members in health technology shortly, but healthcare data platforms are essential for automating the aggregation process. Showcasing a few available solutions and demonstrating how they work can kickstart members’ search for a platform that meets their needs.
  • Teach data hygiene best practices. Although technology can do a lot of the heavy lifting, members should still have a general understanding of data entry and management best practices. Recurring webinars or written guides can be helpful formats for sharing top strategies, such as standardizing data formats and implementing role-based access.
  • Cover relevant data privacy regulations. While most members should already be familiar with industry standards, like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), covering these regulations in your training can serve as helpful reminders of all these rules entail. It also provides an opportunity to cover recent changes to industry standards, keeping your association’s learning materials fresh and relevant.

Lean on your learning management system (LMS) to integrate these tips into your broader teaching materials. Since data aggregation is a fairly high-level topic to cover with members, it’ll be useful to share relevant tips in numerous formats and provide plenty of recurring opportunities to learn about it.

Monitor Emerging Analytics Trends and Tech

Healthcare technology innovations are constantly evolving as software adapts to the growing amount of health data generated each year. Members depend on your association to share new developments that can impact their workflows, such as:

  • Artificial intelligence (AI): The development of AI tools in healthcare impacts patient care, medical research, and even general administrative tasks. Provide resources for members to learn about different AI models and their applications to specific workflows.
  • Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM): RPM is becoming increasingly critical to proactive patient care. Show members how to integrate RPM data into their existing data platforms for more comprehensive insights into patient health. You might share best practices such as establishing secure and efficient data pipelines, standardizing data formats, and developing robust analytical tools to effectively interpret RPM data.
  • Real-time, customizable dashboards: Health data platforms not only gather, aggregate, and organize important information, but also help users gain valuable insights through easily digestible dashboards. Use hands-on workshops to train members on creating dashboards unique to their needs.

To demonstrate your association’s commitment to providing the most up-to-date insights into healthcare trends, consider hosting a recurring workshop or ongoing webinar series that presents new insights each week. This can also serve as a sustainable fundraising tool for your association, since constant updates can incentivize membership renewals in addition to providing non-dues revenue if you charge fees for these sessions.

Differentiate Between Operational and Performance Insights

The tips you share with association members depend on their unique roles, data needs, and the types of data you’re discussing. Keep in mind that some data (like clinical notes and socioeconomic data) influence the way members serve their patient populations. Other data, such as hospital readmission rates or cost savings, are more directly tied to internal operations.

Let’s look at the difference between insights from operational data and performance data.

Operational Data Insights

Operational data provides insights that inform decision-making in members’ respective fields. This could include information like:

  • Claims data
  • Electronic health record (EHR) data
  • Patient-reported outcomes
  • Social determinants of health (SDoH) data (e.g., access to transportation or nutritious food)

Train members to make the most of operational data by sharing systems for analyzing this information and drawing important insights. Depending on members’ data literacy levels, they may also benefit from high-level training, such as an introduction to third-party data or methodologies for extracting insights.

Performance Data Insights

Performance data helps organizations evaluate their effectiveness over time, offering visibility into areas for improvement. Think about this data the same way you’d assess the most popular items in your online store or which fundraiser raised the most money. Members will similarly measure their performance in the healthcare industry—they’ll just use different metrics, such as:

  • Care quality data, like hospital-acquired conditions or readmission rates
  • Patient satisfaction and adherence to treatment plans
  • Financial health, such as the cost per episode for a specific condition

Analytics tools are also important for supporting members’ performance improvement efforts, but make sure that any tools you recommend can tap into market intelligence and benchmark data. This technology will help members compare their performance against other organizations in the industry and identify opportunities to do better.

Note that there may be some overlap between operational and performance-related metrics. For example, a patient’s readmission rate could indicate the potential need for a different treatment plan, but it could also contribute to insights into the quality of care delivered.

Data is a powerful asset in the healthcare industry, and your association’s members are likely looking for new ways to interact with it. Whether they’re starting from scratch and need an introductory overview of data analytics or want a community where they can constantly stay up-to-date on the latest data innovations, your association can deliver what they’re looking for and ensure they see their membership as valuable.