In my work with healthcare enterprises, I have realized that the term “analytics” means all kinds of things depending on who you speak with, and the term “predictive modeling” tends to carry a certain mystique about it. The former usually means Business Intelligence (BI), which more often than not simply means “reports.” The latter, on the other hand, conjures up images of geeks in labs (people with a PhD in applied math, for instance), toiling away at complicated statistical models for extended periods of time, and finally producing an algorithm, or a formula that “predicts” an outcome. The term also implies an expectation that some absolute truth will be revealed by a statistical model that can be a panacea for a vexing problem – such as high rates or readmissions in a hospital.
Savvy business stakeholders say “so what,” because they are unclear about how to use these complex models…