As vice president of data and analytics at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Rajiv Kolagani, MBA, helps drive the adoption of modern data solutions while cultivating a data-driven culture for the organization. Before joining Lurie Children’s, he transformed provider, payer and health tech organizations, including Aetna CVS, Duly Health, DaVita Healthcare and CIOX Healthcare.
Kolagani spoke about the changing landscape of data at CHA’s Pediatric Analytics Conference.
How is the landscape of data changing?
Data has been about understanding the past, but in today’s world, data is about what the future holds. Traditionally, data has been used to understand past trends, patterns and business performance. In the new world, data—along with artificial intelligence—is about designing, predicting, and refining future outcomes. Data used to be about understanding the big picture and trends, but now it is about the hyper-personalization of experiences. It can be used to understand granular needs and preferences of individuals and create personalized experiences that generate brand loyalty and affinity.
How should children’s hospitals evolve their data strategies?
Children’s hospitals face significant headwinds with ever-evolving payment environments; aligning data strategies to support transformation efforts in digital, personalization, operational efficiencies and research initiatives is paramount to future success. Evolving your organization’s data strategy starts with understanding the current state of adoption of your data assets. It requires building a culture of empowerment for staff to make data-driven decisions and drive improvements based on reliable data and adoption of modern technology tools to drive advanced analytics.
Where do children’s hospitals have the greatest opportunity to use data and analytics?
The biggest opportunity is in designing the right analytical solutions. There is typically a mismatch on how data is curated, presented and made available to users to meet their needs. Upfront investment to understand various types of data users, as well as designing data products and analytical solutions that match these users’ needs, bears significant yield in adoption.
How important are visualizations in making data usable?
Storytelling is an important skill everyone working with data should have, and visualizations are key to storytelling with data. Visualizations engage end users in data conversations in a meaningful way. Visualizations help users easily identify patterns and trends and simplify presentation of data that are useful in reducing time to interpret, building trust and making data more usable.
