Atrium Health, Chief Data and Digital Officer: Data Complexity Increases With Number of Data Sources

Omer Awan, Chief Data And Digital Officer at Atrium Health, speaks with David Mariani, CTO, Atscale, about learning required skills, data in health care versus other industries, data culture, and ownership in health care industries, incorporating the hub-and-spoke model for analytics and the placement of hubs within the organization.

Omer Awan, Chief Data And Digital Officer at Atrium Health, speaks with David Mariani, CTO, Atscale, about learning required skills, data in health care versus other industries, data culture, and ownership in health care industries, incorporating the hub-and-spoke model for analytics and the placement of hubs within the organization.

Speaking about his journey, Awan recalls Cerner Corporation recruiting him on campus. He then worked with Memorial Hermann Healthcare and Northern Light Healthcare before moving on to Navon Health and finally into his current role at Atrium Health.

Awan then highlights the aspect of data in health care versus other industries. He mentions the HIPAA privacy rule — exclusive to the health care industry — wherein hospitals are responsible for protecting patient data. The patient data is analyzed while maintaining their privacy, which leads to a healthy patient experience.

He states that other advancements across the health care industry in the data domain, such as AI and ML, are slow compared to data evolution in the banking and retail sectors. However, Awan asserts that health care can learn from the advancements in other industries and incorporate them for better outcomes.

He maintains that health care data is intensive as it derives the information that drives outcomes and directly impacts patients. With health care becoming more data-driven, the need for revolutionary data management is rising. He says that organizations must treat data as a strategic asset to enhance data culture.

Awan further states that mid-size organizations have a centralized data and analytics team to meet the data needs. But a large organization like Atrium Health must elevate data literacy by incorporating analytics community models. 

The role of the hub, says Awan, is to ensure the team has access to data with a standard set of tools. Highlighting the hub-and-spoke model for analytics, he says it starts with a data inventory across the organization. Once the skill sets inventory is completed, teammates must elevate data literacy by learning from each other. This includes learning where the teammates stand in their data journey.

Awan confirms that the data analytics hub is a part of the Information and analytic services of the organization. However, it also operates well with clinical and business leaders. With more data requests than resources, a hybrid hub-and-spoke solution is the only way to proceed, concludes Awan.