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MEDICAL
TECHNOLOGY

DATA
HELPS CLINICAL DECISIONING
By Dr. Bob Teague, Chief Medical Officer, SocialCare

Data in healthcare is good. Data applied for some- “why” data are being presented. What is the step required next?
thing useful – like a clinical decision that informs in- Then, after the decision, there are opportunities to develop in-
dividual care – is even better. novative options for carrying out the downstream activities the
results of which become part of the data that feeds the next as-
Despite progress in acquiring data and advances in sess function.
artificial intelligence and machine learning for analysis,
humans remain central to decisioning in healthcare. Dr. Bob Teague is Chief Medical Officer of SocialCare, a secure,
connected software platform built on open API that achieves true in-
Decisioning requires the automated delivery of teroperability that patients, providers, and regulators now demand.
only needed information to the point of decision. Leveraging SocialCare™, Dr. Teague works with payers and
Necessary elements include access to requested data, providers to help them achieve the intended purpose of value based care - increased
standardization of data, analytics operations and in- quality, lowered costs and improved satisfaction. He brings a career spanning
sights from machine learning. These inputs are de- clinical practice in Houston’s Texas Medical Center and leadership roles in tech-
livered automatically and organized in a user nology to improve healthcare processes and outcomes through multiple entrepre-
interface familiar to the decision maker. neurial enterprises, major healthcare institutions, and Fortune 50 technology
companies. Board certified in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary Disease, Dr.
In this context, data are only useful if they results in an action or Teague’s prior roles include VP of Clinical Transformation and Physician Serv-
a professional judgment. Most of what resides in the clinical data ices at Quorum Health and Managing Principle for Dell Healthcare Consulting.
about an individual is not needed for the next clinical decision and Before that, he was Corporate Medical Director at Compaq Computer Corp for
should not be presented unless requested. 18 years including internal, product and market facing roles. He is a veteran of
three healthcare services startups as founder and served in C-level roles in three
Post-decisioning status creates a set of Actions. Much of Action turn around engagements including experience in the public markets.
can be systematized and automated because these functions are
largely the assemblage of information and the execution of pre-
dictable activities.

Post-decisioning automation includes actions like delivery of pre-
scriptions, standard work flows, requests for testing or procedures,
reports and communication, analytics and output from machine
learning. As with the automation of information flow into the de-
cision process, a wealth of applications can be developed to support
these downstream activities as well.

The process of analyzing and presenting ever larger data sets at the
point of clinical care requires advances in automation and not only
machine learning but also systems-level learning. The learning loops
and outcomes feedback loops support the systems-level learning.

We have reached an inflection point where generating data vastly
exceeds our capability to use it in clinical settings or for self-care
due to a lack of effective process automation.

The process for good human decisioning starts with asking

18 San Antonio Medicine • November 2017