There is a great deal of interest in using big data to make predictions or earlier diagnoses of health problems from diabetes to readmission. Heart disease, the greatest killer in the U.S., is the focus of the latest research effort with the goal of improving outcomes and taking preventive measures for people found to be at greatest risk for the disease. Half of people with heart failure die within five years of diagnosis. Geisinger Health System and IBM Research (NYSE: IBM) are part of a group that has secured a $2 million NIH research grant to develop the best tools and approaches for primary care physicians to do this, according to a company statement.
Sutter Health, a Sacramento-based nonprofit health system, is also part of the research group.
Among the goals of the study are to identify best practices that help health systems nationwide integrate big data analytics into primary care. It will figure out how best to mine and crunch data within electronic health records and use analytics to detect heart failure earlier. The idea is that the deeper dive would position primary care physicians to develop better communication with patients and provide more personalized treatment options to help patients manage their care.
If patients are identified as being at high-risk for heart failure, physicians could help motivate a patient to make potentially life-saving lifestyle changes and test clinical interventions to potentially slow or possibly reverse heart failure progression.
The combined costs of heart failure in the United States — including healthcare services, medication and lost productivity were estimated at $34.4 billion in 2011, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control. and experts predict the number of people diagnosed with heart failure to double by 2030. Under current practice, doctors typically diagnose heart failure during later stages of the disease’s progression, after irreversible organ damage, according to the statement.
Dr. Steve Steinhubl, a Geisinger cardiologist and member of the research team said: “Our earlier research showed that signs and symptoms of heart failure in patients are often documented years before a diagnosis and that the pattern of documentation can offer clinically useful signals for early detection of this deadly disease. Now we have the technology to enable earlier diagnosis and intervention of serious conditions like heart failure, leading to better outcomes for patients.”
