LOUISVILLE, Ky., May 29, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - Health DataPalooza is a national conference that brings together private and government entities to discuss and foster the most effective and innovative ways to use open healthcare data to improve health. The Conference is hosted by the Health Data Consortium, which is a collaboration between government, non-profit, and private organizations to promote and develop the use of open healthcare data. Within the conference, there are several focused groups to narrow in on how to actually put the ideas into practice.
The Data Science and Infrastructure Track, developed by Joshua Rosenthal, PhD, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of RowdMap, Inc. and Chief Data Officer Niall Brennan at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is designed to show how to develop, manage, and utilize open health data. The conference track features sessions by leading academics, government officials, and market leaders from payer and provider organizations. Topics include: Interpretation & application of public data, transparency, direct-to consumer data, national benchmarks for provider information, and communication of public data in the media.
"As the open data movement matures, it faces a number of challenges such as a changing payment model in the healthcare system as CMS sunsets Fee-for-Service and moves to Pay-for-Value. Open health data provides the raw material to target efforts and measure impact, but the key is in educating the market place and helping the participants, whether patients, doctors or health plans successfully navigate these waters." Joshua Rosenthal, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, RowdMap, Inc.
Rosenthal will be speaking on transparency in a session moderated by Ben Harder of US News and World Report. The session will highlight all the different types and sources of information that has been made available in the last few years and how transparency in healthcare is crucial to improving the industry as we know it today. Harder's recent work on creating a U.S. News Doctor Finder web tool, established him as a notable expert on the ranking of doctors in the particular light of their economic incentives shifting to new risk-bearing arrangements.
"RowdMap, Inc. ranks doctors by their ability and likelihood of success in taking on risk through pay-for-value arrangements then matches them with the appropriate options, either government programs or health plan partners. We calculate a provider's risk-readiness based on their practice patterns and how much no-value care or unnecessary spend they generate. In other words, it's something fundamentally different than operational checklists and does not show up in actuarial, unit cost, or utilization reviews. Up to forty-two percent of patients receive no value care each and every year. While that drove billing in the Fee-for-Service era, networks built on providers who mitigate and manage this unnecessary spend will win the Pay-for-Value game." Joshua Rosenthal, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, RowdMap, Inc.
On the theme of using open data responsibly, Rosenthal will be moderating a panel on reporting based on the recent public data releases from CMS featuring Charles Ornstein of ProPublica, Tom McGinty of The Wall Street Journal, and Jennifer Schneider of Castlight Health. "There's been a lot of press about overbilling and the like, but thirty cents of every dollar goes to clinically appropriate but medically unnecessary care. That dwarfs fraud, waste, and abuse. There is more than enough supply to cover patients, and if no-value care were eliminated, resources could be better allocated to provide quality care. CMS is releasing the data to measure unnecessary care and changing the incentives to remove it." Joshua Rosenthal, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, RowdMap, Inc.
Rosenthal is joined by Elizabeth Young, Client Specialist at RowdMap, Inc., Young will be speaking at the DataLab, a showcase organized by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Director for the Health Data Initiative, Damon Davis. The DataLab features government experts on open data and its application for policy and programs. "CMS is putting out so much data, it can be tough to keep up. The key is to find the meaningful data, connect the dots, and help people put together something that solves a specific need, whether its population health, provider rankings and referrals, or product design and selection." Elizabeth Young, Client Specialist, RowdMap, Inc.
On the theme of connecting data to value propositions, Rosenthal will be joined by Marshall Votta, member of RowdMap, Inc.'s advisory board, in organizing the Healthcare Entrepreneur's BootCamp, an event that teaches innovators how to match open data with market propositions. "The ability to create meaningful products and services that solve real problems is what will define success for the data liberation movement. We're proud to have the BootCamp as part of the Health Data Consortium's curriculum in an effort to unleash the power of open health data." Marshall Votta, Board of Advisers, RowdMap, Inc.
RowdMap, Inc. is a proud sponsor of the health data consortium, whose mission is to liberate public data, and the Health Datapalooza event.
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