As far back as the 1840s, clinicians have been using maps to inform them about population health trends. Today, the geo-analytics industry is well-developed in almost every application, with the exception of healthcare and medicine. There is potential to use mapping technologies to show patient disease burden in geographic form, map locations of health care facilities, and a plethora of accountable care population health initiatives would benefit from geo-analysis. Health Catalyst is working to integrate inputs into analysis like maps that can show geographic care boundaries, population health demographics, and more.

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The Power of Geo-Analytics (and Maps) to
Improve Predictive Analytics in Healthcare
By David Crockett

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The Power of Geo-Analytics
If a picture is worth a thousand words,
then a good map is worth at least twice that…
There is much potential for using
maps and geo-analytics as a tool
for healthcare predictive analytics.
Geography and spatial
relationship is a significant tool in
terms of outcomes research,
comparative clinical effectiveness,
and evidence-based medicine. As early as the 1840s, Dr. John Snow
used a map to track cholera deaths in the
Soho district of London from a contam-
inated water source – the now infamous
Broad Street pump (see image below).
Dr. Snow is widely considered to be the
father of modern epidemiology.

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The Power of Geo-Analytics
Geo-Analytics: Ready for Primetime in Healthcare
Geographic information systems
(GIS) and geo-spatial analysis is a
well-developed industry – passing
its 50th anniversary in Fall 2012;
yet, with the possible exception of
epidemiology, much of healthcare
has not fully leveraged this
powerful analytics technology.
Various national and local data
sources are captured as map
layers and used with geo-analytics
to routinely optimize a wide-range
of operations and processes.

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The Power of Geo-Analytics
Geo-Analytics: Ready for Primetime in Healthcare
A natural extension of these
established approaches is to
leverage GIS mapping of health
care facilities, patient disease
burden, and accountable care
population health.
This robust technology is an
indispensable part of many
industries. Now is the time for
healthcare to fully leverage this
same power of geo-analytics.

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The Power of Geo-Analytics
Geo Data and Medical Informatics
This new type of ‘medical
informatics’ leverages national
geo data infrastructure to
improve personal health and
quality of care.
Here are examples of how this
look: (including the next slide)
Tracking water quality in major metropolitan areas
(University of Cincinnati).
Exploring your personal medical ‘Place History’
and exposure to reported chemicals (ESRI).

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The Power of Geo-Analytics
Geo Data and Medical Informatics
Visualizing the risk of heart disease and
stroke in the United States (CDC)

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The Power of Geo-Analytics
Geo Data and Medical Informatics
Geographic variation in medicine
(or geo-medicine) is championed
by well-known thought leaders
such as Jack Wennberg and Jim
Weinstein (Dartmouth), Bill
Davenhall (ESRI, Ted Talk), and
Jack Lord (University of Miami).
Stemming from early work in the
1970s, these studies were first
called “small area variation
analyses” by Wennberg and
Gittelsohn.
No doctor can I remember
ever asking me, ‘Where have
you lived?’ They haven’t
asked me [about] the quality
of the drinking water that I put
in my mouth or the food that I
ingest into my stomach.”
Bill Davenhall

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Real World Geo-Spatial Analytics
in Healthcare
So that brings us to the real question at hand – how
‘healthy’ is your healthcare system?
Health Catalyst is developing
the methodology to integrate
multiple inputs into a visually
appealing analysis (think,
maps) of geographic care
boundaries, population health
demographics, and provider
locations.
Potential map layer inputs can include sources such as Hospital
Service Areas and Healthcare Referral Regions (Dartmouth Atlas of
Health Care), CMS service area definition (Hospital Compare), data
from the U.S. Census Bureau and Health Benefit Program filings
with state health insurance departments, among others

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Real World Geo-Spatial Analytics
in Healthcare
The goal of all these analyses
is to measure and improve
referral tracking and
management, patient leakage
to outside networks, and
objective decision making for
population health managers.
We join with other geo-
medicine leaders offering to
you that indeed “geography is
the destiny of medicine.”

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More about this topic
4 Bold Predictions for Healthcare Analytics in 2014 and Beyond
Brent Dover, President
The Reality of Predictive Analytics Versus the Hype
David Crockett, Senior Director of Research and Predictive Analytics
Prescriptive Analytics Beats Simple Prediction for Improving Healthcare
David K. Crockett, Ph.D., Senior Director of Research and Predictive Analytics
In Healthcare Predictive Analytics, Big Data is Sometimes a Big Mess
David K. Crockett, Ph.D., Senior Director of Research and Predictive Analytics
Predictive Analytics: It’s the Intervention That Matters (Webinar, Slides, or Transcript)
Dale Sanders, Senior Vice President and David K. Crockett, Ph.D., Senior Director of
Research and Predictive Analytics

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Other Clinical Quality Improvement Resources
Click to read additional information at www.healthcatalyst.com
David K. Crockett, Ph.D. is the Senior Director of Research and Predictive
Analytics. He brings nearly 20 years of translational research experience in
pathology, laboratory and clinical diagnostics. His recent work includes patents
in computer prediction models for phenotype effect of uncertain gene variants.
Dr. Crockett has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles in areas such
as bioinformatics, biomarker discovery, immunology, molecular oncology, genomics and
proteomics. He holds a BA in molecular biology from Brigham Young University, and a
Ph.D. in biomedical informatics from the University of Utah, recognized as one of the
top training programs for informatics in the world. Dr. Crockett builds on Health
Catalyst’s ability to predict patient health outcomes and enable the next level of
prescriptive analytics – the science of determining the most effective interventions to
maintain health.