{"id":26436,"date":"2021-10-21T07:36:31","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T14:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/?p=26436"},"modified":"2021-10-13T11:34:21","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T18:34:21","slug":"the-top-big-data-issues-and-how-wellness-can-do-them-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/all-mfn\/the-top-big-data-issues-and-how-wellness-can-do-them-better\/","title":{"rendered":"The Top Big Data Issues \u2013 and How Wellness Can Do Them Better"},"content":{"rendered":"

Big data is here to stay within the healthcare profession.\u00a0\u00a0More and more engineers and data programmers are being hired to sift through the myriad of data that consumes the field.\u00a0\u00a0Of concern to executives at the top are certain attributes of healthcare that may need \u201cfixing\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0The aspects of this report are to highlight what are perceived as the biggest concerns in healthcare, and how the wellness industry \u2013 if they can stay on track \u2013 can supersede all of these types of issues as they transition to the data analytics side of their health offerings.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

#1 \u2013\u00a0In network utilization.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

This is a very big concern for hospital systems and physician network groups, as patients have a tendency to switch providers if they think they will get better service, better medicine, or better prices.\u00a0\u00a0One of the reasons is that most patient contracts don\u2019t require patients to stay in a network \u2013 which puts the responsibility of good care, competitive prices, and follow ups squarely on the doctors.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If patients are unhappy with their doctor or practice for any reason, they can leave.\u00a0\u00a0Now that these organizations are getting bigger and more complex \u2013 it\u2019s easier to see why patients may become disgruntled, and try to find a better solution in a private practice, or smaller group or hospital practice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From the wellness side \u2013 it\u2019s not uncommon for health club members to stay at their club or studio for years.\u00a0\u00a0Prices don\u2019t change that much, and most members have a very personal relationship with their instructors and club owners.\u00a0\u00a0They have group classes, personal exercise programs, child care, plenty of free parking, and clean facilities that provide some of the latest in technology every few years.\u00a0\u00a0So \u2013 should healthcare systems look to health clubs to see why people stay in clubs longer?\u00a0\u00a0Perhaps they should be partnering with these health clubs for specific programs for their patients.<\/span><\/p>\n

#2 \u2013\u00a0Customer satisfaction.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

This is a priority in most businesses.\u00a0\u00a0Hospitals and physician practices are no exception.\u00a0\u00a0However, most people still associate going to the doctors with being sick.\u00a0\u00a0So there is already an inherent negative connotation to the doctor\u2019s office.\u00a0\u00a0Therefore physicians need more than a lab coat and a prescription to make sure patients are getting what they need.\u00a0\u00a0They need a team-orientated approach that can help with the issue NOW, and use the team to follow up with the patient to make sure the situation and health concerns are taken care of over time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Again \u2013 the health and fitness industry is concerned about customer satisfaction.\u00a0\u00a0With cut-rate gym memberships, and a new club coming into communities almost every month, clubs and owners need to offer clean facilities, professional trainers and instructors, and technologically advanced equipment that doesn\u2019t break down and that is easy for members to take advantage of.\u00a0\u00a0The issue between the two programs \u2013 is that although some exercise programs push the body and may be painful \u2013 it\u2019s a good pain and the rewards of long term participation should be better health and less risk of using the healthcare system over time.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the old adage of \u201cpay me now, or pay me later\u201d axiom, and more people are willing to put their trust in health clubs \u2013 and the risk of injury or illness or death is extremely low compared to even trips to the doctor\u2019s office.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

#3 \u2013\u00a0Looking at the mounting\u00a0data to convene the best possible approach to patient care.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Again \u2013 this is a huge concern in healthcare \u2013 that doctors can\u2019t read the thousands of new studies that come out in their field each month, so they rely more and more on their clinical experience (which may be a good thing), but they will stick to the tried and true methods they have always been using, and may not prescribe the most effective type of treatment for their patients.\u00a0\u00a0Big data in many instances can do two things \u2013 one is look over millions of studies in a particular field, and two \u2013 through machine learning, hone in on what may be the best type of treatment plan for a particular patient, based on their age, severity of disease, family history, weight, and other factors.\u00a0\u00a0This is a powerful tool to help doctors prescribe and treat better.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s still the same paradigm.\u00a0\u00a0They are looking over medical studies, many of which may not be in the best interest of the patient.\u00a0\u00a0One of the most cited studies in medicine came in 2005 when Stanford epidemiologist John Ionnidis reported that the majority of medical research finding are false, because they have inherent bias from their authors, their findings are not statistically significant, they were published by industry officials, and are not relevant, and conclusions may not match the actual results of these very papers.\u00a0 Ionnidis opened the floodgates for many professionals who have gone after medical research and institutions for publishing false studies.\u00a0\u00a0It is estimated that almost 40% of medical research studies are false, in that their findings do not hold relevance regarding the enhancement of patient care.<\/span><\/p>\n

In contrast, sports medicine has been methodological in its research for a century \u2013 from the basis of treadmill cardiac and performance testing in the 1930s, to the onset of physical activity studies in the 1950s and 60s, to cardiac rehab and exercise safety studies in the 1980s, to the onset of exercise for special population groups in the 1990s.\u00a0\u00a0There are very few reports on sports medicine research fraud, and the foundation of this research usually shows some level of benefit to those who participate.\u00a0\u00a0In almost all cases, no harm is done to subjects while performing these studies.\u00a0\u00a0This has now transitioned into many successful clinical health club programs for persons with cancer (Sunflower Wellness, Cancer Well-fit, Fast Trac Cancer Program), spinal cord injury (Claremont Club), multiple sclerosis, diabetes, hypertension, weight management, bariatric recovery, and medical fitness in general.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

#4 \u2013\u00a0Cost savings.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\u00a0One of the biggest attributes of big data and population health is to drive policymakers and physicians to deliver the highest quality care at the most competitive prices.\u00a0\u00a0In many opinions, this is a misnomer of sorts, and medicine is continually advancing technology, which is very expensive, and works through a third party reimbursement system — which is many times more expensive than if they offered the service or procedure or product at market value.\u00a0\u00a0Many hospitals are undergoing facelifts (no pun intended) and look more like five-star hotels than medical centers.\u00a0\u00a0All of these amenities cost the patient and insurance pool more money.\u00a0\u00a0This is why healthcare costs usually rise at more than twice the rate of inflation, and have some of the highest costs of any industrialized business model.<\/span><\/p>\n

As far as health and fitness, the rate of price changes for the average health club has held steady at just below inflation for years.\u00a0\u00a0The prices for caf\u00e9 food, personal training, specialty exercise, or apparel has also held steady.\u00a0\u00a0Even with the rush of new technologies for equipment and personal monitoring devices (such as FitBit), prices have remained constant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Big data in the health and fitness setting should be concentrated on health outcomes.\u00a0\u00a0There are many software programs in the industry now that look at finances, front desk management, club administration, and human resources.\u00a0\u00a0They do their functions well.<\/span><\/p>\n

If big data is going to continue to look at all aspects of healthcare, and continue to miss the boat regarding improved patient health and well-being, then no amount of data can help repair the continual dysfunction that exists between an over-burdened and (in many opinions) under caring system, and the continued increase in poor health in the US.\u00a0\u00a0Prescribing more pain meds, vaccines, or antibiotics will not help improve health \u2013 and in many cases is making health worse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The health and fitness profession is on the mark moving into the realm of special populations at every level.\u00a0\u00a0As the amount of population health and data analytics becomes a more ingrained part of wellness, we will see at many levels how these types of interventions improve health, reduce costs, and vastly improve patient satisfaction and retention to their favorite health club, exercise program, or personal trainer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Eric Durak is President of\u00a0MedHealthFit<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a health care education and consulting company in Santa Barbara, CA. A 25 year veteran of the health and fitness industry, he has worked in health clubs, medical research, continuing education, and business development. Among his programs include The Cancer Fit-CARE Program, Exercise Medicine, The Insurance Reimbursement Guide, and Wellness @ Home Series for home care wellness.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

References<\/b><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.optum.com\/content\/dam\/optum3\/optum\/en\/resources\/gated\/Optum_NYUPN_Topic_Spotlight.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Ionnidis, JPA.\u00a0\u00a0Why most published research findings are false.\u00a0\u00a02005.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>PLoS Medicine.<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0Aug. 30. Doi: 10.1371\/journal.pmed.0020124<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Big data is here to stay within the healthcare profession.\u00a0\u00a0More and more engineers and data programmers are being hired to sift through the myriad of data that consumes the field.\u00a0\u00a0Of concern to executives at the top are certain attributes of healthcare that may need \u201cfixing\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0The aspects of this report are to highlight what are perceived as the biggest concerns in healthcare, and how the wellness industry \u2013 if they can stay on track \u2013 can supersede all of these types of issues as they transition to the data analytics side of their health offerings.\u00a0\u00a0 #1 \u2013\u00a0In network utilization.\u00a0\u00a0 This is a very big concern for hospital systems and physician network groups, as patients have a tendency to switch providers if they think they will get better service, better medicine, or better prices.\u00a0\u00a0One of the reasons is that most patient contracts don\u2019t require patients to stay in a network \u2013 which puts the responsibility of good care, competitive prices, and follow ups squarely on the doctors.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If patients are unhappy with their doctor or practice for any reason, they can leave.\u00a0\u00a0Now that these organizations are getting bigger and more complex \u2013 it\u2019s easier to see why patients may become disgruntled, and try […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":26440,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[281,198],"class_list":["post-26436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-mfn","tag-business","tag-fitness-professionals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30900,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26436\/revisions\/30900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}