The Roanoker - July/August 2018 - 70

When asked what we can do to help
safeguard our own patient information, Perry
noted that much of the information used in data
systems is de-identified, meaning your specific
identifiers like Social Security number, address
and other key information are removed before
it is analyzed or processed.
He recommends utilizing digital patient
portals, like Epic MyChart, rather than paper.
He says, "It is not uncommon for patients to
lose papers, drop them in parking lots or have
them laying around at home or tossed out in
the trash."
He also suggests using a credit monitoring
service that monitors the dark web to reduce the
risk of identity theft. You should be extremely
suspicious of anyone reaching out to you over
the phone or through email requesting your
personal information.
He states, "You should never provide your
personal or medical information to anyone
through email. You should only use approved
patient portals, like MyChart, to communicate
with your care team to ensure your information
is protected." -EW
70

JULY/AUGUST 2018

the reasoning for decisions regarding our medical information. Perry's
responsibilities are broad. He oversees technology that clinical and operational
leaders need to direct patient care, including information systems, health
information management and clinical engineering. Perry puts it simply, "People
are taking care of people everywhere in the hospital; on the opposite side of
that, technology has hopefully enabled them to spend more time on the care
and compassion they give."
Next to ensuring that the technology is always functional, the sacrosanct
part of his mission is safeguarding the data. Perry says all 13,000 employees
share accountability for safeguarding the information. Carilion has internal
systems to monitor who is accessing and using patient information. Audits are
also conducted by the Office of Organizational Integrity and Compliance as
well as external auditors are engaged for additional risk assessments.
Perry's goal is to keep the patient at the center of technology, with upgraded,
robust data helping patients. "Medication administration has been a huge win
with the use of technology. The pharmacy, the patient and medication prep
and dispensing, as well as administration of medication, is all systematically
checked in real time," he says.
A patient's wristband is scanned to ensure the right patient is given the
right medication at the right time. Diets and other medications are checked for
interactions through the enterprise-wide electronic health record (EHR), Epic.
Formulary information by pharmaceutical manufacturers provides up-to-date
content, so data is provided in real-time regarding the drug being administered.
Perry works collaboratively with Dr. Stephen Morgan, Chief Medical
Information Officer. Morgan and his team of doctors, nurses and analysts are
tasked with bringing value and meaning to these large data sets and offering.
Morgan and his team use their knowledge of healthcare, information systems,
databases and information technology security to gather, store, interpret and
manage the massive amount of data generated when care is provided to
patients.
"Bringing value and meaning from these large data sets is one of our primary
goals," according to Morgan. Part of this work involves providing clinical
decision support to a variety of team members at the point of care, when
clinicians are treating patients. "The goal is to not overwhelm practitioners,
but to provide the best information at the right time, while providing great
care and reducing overall health care costs."
Big data is the practice of combining many sources of extremely large data
sets to reveal patterns, trends and associations, especially relating to human
behavior and interactions. Big data within health care is a natural progression,
from information collected through electronic medical records beginning in
the 1990s, to standardization of medical information through 2008. Now
trending is the use of in-house information, along with third party and public
information, to make predictive decisions in every aspect of patient care.
As part of the Affordable Care Act, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
(CMS) began to move toward a value-based model for billing that focused
more on quality outcomes. The old model for billing was fee-for-service-
meaning the more care one provides, the more one bills. Treating large
volumes of patients was a goal during this period. Increasingly, hospitals are
now reimbursed for the quality of care and not just quantity. The new model
financially ties patient outcomes to reimbursement.
To improve outcomes, it is important to share large amounts of data between
health care settings to provide better care for patients. Having a more global
view of the patient allows for more in-depth knowledge and improved clinical
insight. With the availability of these large data sets, predictive models can be
developed to help provide quality care in a less expensive way.
Since the most expensive medical care is provided in the hospital setting,
providers can reach out to high-risk patients and communities to help avoid
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