Population healthcare is meeting the healthcare needs for a specific target audience. Similar to what Dr. John Snow did when noticing the number of deaths huddled around a water pump, modern informaticians will need accurate and timely information to make sound analysis (Kraft, Androwich, Mastrain, & McGonigle, 2017, p. 265). If there was a new strain of influenza, two data points would help in determining the need for an inoculation program.
Work absenteeism is one point. Employees who have influenza like symptoms are less likely to go to work. By using absenteeism, we can determine the severity of the problem.
Over the counter sales (OTC) of medication can also be used as a data point. It assumes that patients use OTC products before visiting an urgent care. OTC sales and urgent care visits have been coupled with emergency department visits as a proxy for disease outbreaks (Liu et al., 2013). Increased sales of OTC products would portend the need for inoculation.
For determining the helpfulness of an inoculation program, we can use the number of doctor visits and the rate of new cases after the program. Generally, having a declining number of both of these would be a good indication of how well a program worked.
Analytics can help with many things. From how best to service a customer, cross sell a product, or manage risk, analytics can help make better decisions. Policymakers can use healthcare analysis to help determine how to deliver better targeted care (The Economist, 2020). In population health, it can help in knowing how best to deploy available resources.
References
The Economist (Producer). (2020, February 11). Healthcare – The art and science of policymaking, Davos 2020. The Economist Events. Podcast retrieved from https://youtu.be/V12t-RPIruU
Kraft, M. R., Androwich, I., Mastrain, K., & McGonigle, D. (2017). Using Informatics to Promote Community/Population Health. In K. G. Mastrain & D. McGonigle (Authors), Informatics for Health Professionals (pp. 263-276). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Liu, T., Sanders, J., Tsui, F.-C., Espino, J., Dato, V., & Suyama, J. (2013). Association of Over-The-Counter Pharmaceutical Sales with Influenza-Like-Illnesses to Patient Volume in an Urgent Care Setting. PLoS One, 8(3).