Value Based Healthcare: How Information Technology and Analytics Improve Chronic Care
COM2 Level 4
Executive Classroom, COM2-04-02
ABSTRACT:
Treatment of patients with chronic diseases affect patients quality of life and strain health system costs. We need deeper understanding of the activities to manage and slow the progression of chronic diseases to improve quality of care and lower healthcare costs. Advances in Information Technology (IT) infrastructure and analytics help clinicians and patients better understand the activities and timing that create healthcare value by improving patient health and lowering costs of healthcare.
We propose a theory of Temporal Displacement of Care (TDC) in which IT and analytics create healthcare value by displacing the time at which clinicians and patients make interventions to improve healthcare outcomes and reduce costs. We propose that healthcare value is created by strategic actions that are taken at a specific point-in-time during the treatment process. We test our hypotheses using data on a matched panel of 45,000 patients from the U.S. state of Vermont, which implemented a patient centered medical home (PCMH) program through which IT and analytics provided insights on the activities and timing that create healthcare value.
Our empirical findings show that during Year 1 after implementation, insights from IT and analytics enable clinicians to displace later urgent procedures to earlier preventative procedures. In Year 2, the displacement of procedures translates into lower expenses for emergency care, inpatient and total cost of healthcare. In Year 3, the expense differentials widen and the clinical outcome Hemoglobin A1c improves. Our findings provide insights into how impacts develop over time. Theory of TDC articulates mechanisms through which IT and analytics inform clinicians and patients about when and where to locate healthcare services that improve patientcare outcomes and lower costs. We discuss future uses of TDC in managing patient wellness and to lowering costs for insurers and the patients.
BIODATA:
Rajiv Kohli is the John N. Dalton Memorial Professor of Business in the Raymond A. Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary. Dr. Kohli's research interests include Business Value of Information Technology, Healthcare Information Systems, and Managing Innovation with Information Technologies. Dr. Kohli is ranked as #1 scholar in a Health Information Technology (HIT) thought leadership study.
Dr. Kohli's research is published in MIS Quarterly, Management Science, Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly Executive, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of Operations Management, and Decision Support Systems, among other journals. He is a coauthor of the book The IT Payoff: Measuring Business Value of Information Technology Investment, published by Financial Times Prentice-Hall.
Dr. Kohli has worked in healthcare, telecommunications and manufacturing. Prior to joining academia, he was a Project Leader in Decision Support Services at Trinity Health. Dr. Kohli is an honorary Fellow of the Cambridge Judge Business School and a Research Affiliate at MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research. He is a past Senior Editor for MIS Quarterly and is currently serving as a Senior Editor for Information Systems Research. Additional information and publications are available at http://masonweb.wm.edu/rajiv.kohli