Dive Brief:
- Carolinas HealthCare System told Bloomberg BusinessWeek that it is using consumer data—from public records, credit card purchases, and even store loyalty card transactions—to create predictive models and assign risk scores to patients.
- Over the next two years, doctors and nurses in the system, which runs 900-plus facilities in North Carolina and South Carolina, will regularly receive patients' risk scores, allowing them to reach out to patients regarding their health risks.
- Carolinas HealthCare can disclose patients' risk scores to their doctors, but the hospital's contract with its data provider prohibits it from disclosing details, such as specific transactions.
Dive Insight:
Michael Dulin, Carolinas HealthCare System's director of research and evidence-based medicine, gave examples to Bloomberg BusinessWeek of how the system will use consumer data to predict patients' risks. Hospitals would score the likelihood of an asthmatic patient being admitted to the emergency room based on whether they refill prescriptions, buy cigarettes or live in an area with a high pollen count, he said. And patients' risks for heart attacks would incorporate information such as what kind of foods they buy or whether or not they belong to a gym.
Using data analytics to improve patients' health and outcomes is rapidly on the rise, especially for increasingly popular accountable care organizations. But how far is too far with data collection on individuals? When do measures threaten patient privacy and the doctor-patient relationship? As an accountant with diabetes, living in Charlotte, N.C., told Bloomberg BusinessWeek: "It is one thing to have a number I can call if I have a problem or question, it is another thing to get unsolicited phone calls. I don't like that. I think it is intrusive."