Gregg Loughman, CEO of Perception Health, has a problem with one of healthcare's most used phrases: actionable insights. "If insights were easily actionable, then as a country we would not rank where we do in terms of mortality, morbidity, and healthcare outcomes for different disease states. The data is there," Loughman says. "The insights are there. The question is, what is the willingness to change?"

Dr. Eric Weaver saw what he calls "the dark underbelly of fee-for-service medicine" and how it doesn't always work in the best interest of patient care. He left the FFS world, started an ACO, and never looked back. Now, as executive director of the Accountable Care Learning Collaborative (ACLC), he joins other national leaders driving the movement towards value-based care, and the digital transformation that enables it.

Surgeons who use data and predictive modeling can help improve care quality and outcomes, and lower healthcare system costs, for one reason: they have a better understanding of what patients need, including social factors, and can marshal the appropriate resources to help them at the right time, in the right way.

Kevin Brennan is a healthcare change agent. He was instrumental in driving innovation at Geisinger during his 23 year role as CFO, where he helped the organization embrace healthcare IT to capture, collect, and use data in novel and impactful ways. Those innovations helped evolve the organization into a high-performance national leader in value-based care delivery, providing high-quality care and superior patient experiences for millions of people at costs well below the national average.

Even after years of investing in value-based care, the healthcare industry still lacks defined communication channels to connect providers and patients. Operating in information silos limits organizations’ operational efficiency. From scheduling patient appointments to reporting on patients’ health conditions, providers need dedicated applications that make collaboration easier.

We’re excited to share that we’re hosting our first Twitter chat - #HITtalk - on Tuesday, October 19, at 11 AM EDT (8 AM PT) from the HTLH conference in Boston. We’d love you to join the chat and engage with healthcare stakeholders on the latest trends and challenges in digital transformation and healthcare innovation.

In the past year, payers have been confronted with laws that change the way their data is accessed by members (or patients) and other stakeholders. Under these new regulations, payers need to make technological shifts to increase interoperability and make it easier for members to securely access their data. The most recent law directly impacting payers is the Interoperability and Patient Access final rule (CMS-9115-F) .

The internet contains a lot of data, but not all of it is reliable for decision-making. In healthcare—where lives are at risk—data needs to be factual and 100% actionable.

In the history of innovation breakthroughs, some myths remain strong. In the hardware world, game-changing devices get built in the garage. For life sciences, the eurekas come in basement labs. In these origin stories, the heroes are usually a pair of scrappy, go-it-alone engineers or scientists. They build everything from scratch and on their own, giving rise to the Apples, HPs, Medtronics, and Roches of today.

The global pandemic is teaching us some invaluable lessons. As we recently heard in a discussion with Julie Fowler Smith, Banner Health, and Rakesh Mathew, Sogeti, they’ve taken stock of those lessons and are now navigating a smarter way forward.