[Below is the latest in a blog series in which Dale Sanders explores the “combination of fate, luck, planning and preparation that rolls together and creates a career.” Click here for Part 1.] In the mid and late 1980s, we (members of the US Air Force Strategic Air Command battle staff) were seeing evidence in national […]
The Best Alternative To A Negotiated Agreement
In negotiations, there is a concept known as the “best alternative to a negotiated agreement” (BATNA). The concept was first described in a book called “Getting to Yes” published in 1981 by researchers at Harvard Law School. In a nutshell, BATNA refers to the situation that remains if current negotiations fail; that is, what are […]
The 7 Simple Practices Of Data Governance
Data is now one of the most valuable assets in any healthcare organization, especially as we transition into a more analytically driven industry. Data is the longest lasting asset in any organization, outliving facilities, devices and people. In the past few years, as the value and longevity of data have become better realized, the term […]
Looking Past The Analytics Smoke And Mirrors
I had a recent opportunity to engage in an online discussion with a well-known healthcare analytics vendor about the value of comparative analytics, predictive analytics, and natural language processing (NLP) in healthcare. This vendor was describing a beautiful new world of the future, in which comparative data in particular would be the cornerstone of our […]
Switching It Up: How Dale Sanders Went From Nuclear Warfare to Healthcare
[Below is the latest in a blog series in which Dale Sanders explores the “combination of fate, luck, planning and preparation that rolls together and creates a career.”] When Kate and Anthony asked me to write this blog, I was a bit reluctant to write a piece with so many first-person pronouns, but I hope […]
The Superpower That CIOs Can Harness To Become Analytic Heroes
As Vi Shaffer of Gartner said in her Fall 2012 CHIME keynote, “The ‘I’ in CIOs of the future stands for analytics.” All of us quietly yearn to be heroes, and CIOs are no exception. We want to harness the power of information technology to dramatically improve healthcare quality and costs. Despite their privileged position […]
From Governance to Standards: Data Warehousing Decoded
Dale Sanders, CIO mentor and senior technology advisor for the Cayman Islands HSA, tackles data warehousing by providing answers to key questions, from what type of governance structure is needed to which core dimensions of analysis are most important. He also breaks down the four data models and talks about buy-in […]
Optimizing Cerner: Looking Back (Part 1)
Three years ago, I wrote the blog below to describe our intentions and aspirations for improving the current state of affairs for our Cerner applications in the Cayman Islands National Health System. The phrase “EMR Optimization” is now the common term to describe our undertaking; fixing a very bad implementation is the more frank description. […]
A Better Way To Gauge Patient Satisfaction
The New England Journal of Medicine recently published an excellent article on patient satisfaction and outcomes data (“The Patient Experience and Health Outcomes”). My Toyota maintenance guy sends me a customer satisfaction email automatically after each “clinical encounter” with my cars. He asks me to rate the quality of the service he provided as well […]
Acknowledging Our Mentors: Dale Sanders Salutes His Role Model
I’ve only had one mentor in my life. And I emphasize ‘only’ because it’s sad that we don’t have a culture that encourages mentorship until the day we die. It’s worth noting, some people are not willing to be mentored; and some people who claim or aspire to be mentors, are motivated by delusions of self-grandeur […]