New Textbook from Dr. Farrokh Alemi Answers Big Questions on Big Data in Healthcare

By 2022, the market for big data in healthcare is expected to reach $34.27 billion.[i] For the healthcare industry, this means big questions about how to use all that Electronic Health Record (EHR) data to improve patient outcomes, reduce costs, and increase productivity. In his newly published textbook Big Data in Healthcare: Statistical Analysis of the Electronic Health Record, Dr. Farrokh Alemi, professor in the College of Health and Human Services Department of Health Administration and Policy offers effective practices in leveraging EHR data.

"Precision and predictive medicine are fundamental to our future and to realize the full potential for EHR data, health care leaders must deemphasize hypothesis testing and focus on the actual data obtained from the records itself," explains Alemi, "Big Data in Healthcare establishes benchmarks for how statistical analysis and causal analysis of observational data of massive electronic health record data should be done."

The textbook provides the statistical tools that healthcare leaders need to organize and interpret their data and demonstrates how to leverage EHR data for applications as diverse as healthcare marketing, pay for performance, cost accounting, and strategic management. Topics include:

Using real-world data to compare hospitals’ performance,
Measuring the prognosis of patients through massive data,
Distinguishing between fake claims and true improvements,
Comparing the effectiveness of different interventions using causal analysis,
Benchmarking different clinicians on the same set of patients, and
Removing confounding in observational data.

Alemi is also the author of a book on decision analysis and another on policy systems and a third on application of process improvement to personal health.

Big Data in Healthcare: Statistical Analysis of the Electronic Health Record is available at online retailers.

[i] https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/big-data-in-healthcare-market-2018-global-share-trends-segmentation-analysis-and-forecast-to-2025-2018-11-13