Stephen Parodi, MD, Discusses Kaiser Permanente’s Use of Predictive Analytics to Improve Care

Advances in precision medicine – including predictive analytics, genomics and even the use of social and non-medical data – gives physicians the ability to better predict future outcomes for patients and customize treatment plans for individuals.

Over the past 10 years and thanks to a robust electronic medical record, Kaiser Permanente has increasingly used precision medicine to move from treatment of illness to prediction and prevention.

Stephen Parodi, MD, executive vice president of External Affairs, Communications and Brand at The Permanente Federation and associate executive director for The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG), spoke with Modern Healthcare about how The Permanente Medical Group is using precision medicine to improve population health.

For many years, Kaiser Permanente has used precision medicine to develop targeted treatment plans for tumors, predict the risk of sepsis in newborn babies, and to predict the risk of ICU admissions and hospital readmissions, among other things.

More recently, Kaiser Permanente has started looking at the social determinants of health in addition to medical factors to improve population care through predictive analytics. Dr. Parodi explained how TPMG uses a special algorithm that analyzes factors such as Emergency Department visits, prior access to social services, and even ZIP code to predict whether a patient could benefit from additional care coordination or community support to help them manage chronic health conditions. “We believe it’s not just about health care but about total health,” Dr. Parodi said.

Read the complete story on Modern Healthcare site. (Registration required.)

For more information on how Kaiser Permanente uses Predictive Analytics, visit our fact sheet here.