Big Data: Case Study I - Walgreens

There buzz about Big Data is not going no where any time soon. Seminars and workshops are being organized year round to cut through the hype and get to the bottom line, which is how Big Data can actually be a good business tool for small, medium and large scale businesses. More and more business leaders are signing up to participate in these events and to get more insights. The reason why this is also gaining good traction is because its application is not limited to one particular business sector but can be used in almost all industrial sectors from small scale to multinationals. Which is also great news for Big Data enthuse involve in the development and application of Big Data tools.

To make the pudding taste good and hope this would get to give me and anyone who reads the blog a good standing ground, I would start a series of case studies on how big data is being applied in different industries as well as some success stories. Do not worry, if I find good case studies of its failure I would be more than excited to share as well. (Sure its not 100%)

Walgreens - Inovalon partnership for point of care at in-store health clinics.

Below is and except from an article on CIO.com. This is very promising and I can not wait to see some good news come out of this as soon as possible. 

[ Checking Up on You

When a patient from any of the health insurers that partner with Inovalon seeks care at a Walgreens clinic, ePASS analyzes aggregated data and gives the clinician details about the patient's conditions, treatment history and any missing elements. For example, the software can identify that a patient is overdue for a routine screening or hasn't filled a prescription. The system alerts the clinician to these gaps so she can make recommendations to the patient right then and there.

"It can provide a very, very specific encounter for that patient," Helle says.

In contrast, a clinician treating a patient whose records aren't part of the system would have to take a detailed oral history. Even then, the clinicians couldn't know about possible missed screenings or unfilled prescriptions.

Cynthia Burghard, a research director at IDC Health Insights, says Walgreens clinicians should be able to get insights through ePASS that they couldn't get without analytics. But point-of-care analytics is a young field, Burghard says, and it's too early to determine how much analytics can improve patient health.

However, Burghard says, ePASS could set Walgreens apart from its competitors. CVS runs in-store clinics, and Rite-Aid has launched online clinics via kiosks in some of its stores. If insurers see that Walgreens can produce good healthcare outcomes at lower costs, they may direct their Amembers there, she says, to help keep overall costs in check.] 

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