Driving Innovation in Healthcare Data Management: A Q&A with Wendy Ertter, Senior Analytics Principal at Further

In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, data privacy and security have become paramount concerns for organizations striving to provide exceptional patient care while adhering to stringent regulatory requirements. Wendy Ertter, Senior Analytics Principal, Privacy Solutions Lead at Further, a leading data, cloud, and AI company, shares her insights on how healthcare organizations can leverage advanced analytics and technology to enhance data management, ensure compliance, and drive innovation. In this Q&A, Wendy discusses her role at Further, the challenges facing healthcare providers, and the transformative potential of predictive analytics in the industry.

Tell us about your background and role at Further.

I’ve spent the last 20 years working in analytics with a background in usability, information architecture, digital marketing and project management. I’ve been at Further for 10 of those years, where today I serve in my most recent role as Senior Analytics Principal, Privacy Solutions Lead. In this position, I specialize in working with stakeholders to lead the development and maturity of analytics programs that support business optimization and actionable insight.

For our healthcare customers, this means looking at how we can transform sales and marketing strategies with cutting-edge solutions that help them innovate in a crowded market, deliver enhanced digital experiences and most importantly of all – protect privacy.

Can you provide examples of how Further’s solutions have helped healthcare organizations improve data management, while ensuring compliance with privacy regulations like HIPAA?

This is a major topic of conversation right now across many industries, but especially in healthcare. One example here is from a recent hospital group that had patients searching for care options and doctors within the system flag they were getting retargeted with ads after online searches of the organization. The concern was that the individual’s data was being shared and was not within HIPAA compliance and patient confidentiality. In some ways we had to educate the organization that this is how digital marketing works, but we also involved our privacy practice here to ensure this hospital had the appropriate secure and compliant systems in place. After this review, we did have to implement a few new tools to ensure complete compliance, which is critical as organizations continue to navigate the complex healthcare regulatory environment. This included a monitoring solution to watch for unapproved vendors that can be unexpectedly added to websites.

What are some of the most pressing data privacy and security challenges currently facing healthcare organizations, and how can these impact patient care and operational efficiency? 

Under HIPAA, healthcare stakeholders are under increasing pressure to seek out business associate agreements and adjust marketing technology integrations. In 2022, for example, Meta and several US hospitals were sued under two class-action lawsuits for allegedly violating HIPAA, which cast a light on the often shadowy exchange of data that can occur as users browse the web. Following this, the HSS issued a bulletin to remind covered entities and their business associates of their obligations under the law and relevant regulations.

For providers whose sole purpose is to provide quality patient care, however, ensuring compliance can be burdensome, and often takes away time that could be spent on improving the patient experience. That’s where someone like Further can come in. Today’s leading hospitals and health systems need partners they can trust and that will provide tailor-made solutions leveraging data to help them innovate in a crowded market, deliver enhanced digital experiences, and protect privacy. 

What role does technology play in enhancing data security and compliance in healthcare, and what innovations should organizations be aware of?

Technology plays a critical role in ensuring security and compliance. By implementing advanced encryption, access controls, and automated compliance tools, healthcare organizations can ensure their sensitive patient information is  safeguarded and protected. Cloud providers are increasingly offering healthcare-specific security and compliance frameworks, such as HIPAA-compliant services, to ensure that healthcare data remains secure. Privacy management tools, like OneTrust and TrustArc, help healthcare organizations manage data privacy, consent, and regulatory compliance, with capabilities to conduct compliance assessments, data mapping, and risk management, specifically designed to meet healthcare privacy requirements.

Innovations such as AI and ML are also critical here, as such technology helps identify potential security threats by analyzing patterns and anomalies, while also monitoring systems for unusual activity, thus providing the opportunity to respond more quickly to potential threats. AI and ML can further help protect privacy with techniques such as differential privacy to add statistical noise to datasets, making it possible to collect and share aggregate data without exposing individual patient information.

What innovations or shifts do you anticipate will have the most significant impact on the healthcare industry over the next few years?

Predictive analytics. Healthcare is always changing, and one of the biggest changes in recent years has been the adoption of predictive analytics. However, predictive analytics in healthcare is currently in its infancy – but I do foresee this revolutionizing our industry in the near future. 

The benefits?

Enhanced Disease Detection: Through the analysis of data from EHRs and medical devices, predictive analytics can identify patterns and trends that may indicate the early stages of a disease – empowering healthcare providers to react more quickly. 

Personalized Treatment Strategies: Predictive analytics enables healthcare providers to develop personalized treatment plans for patients by considering their medical history, lifestyle, and other relevant factors. This approach can result in improved outcomes, a decrease in hospital readmissions, and a more effective allocation of resources.

Financial Savings: Predictive analytics can be used to pinpoint areas where costs can be minimized, such as avoiding unnecessary tests and procedures. This can result in substantial cost savings for patients and healthcare organizations alike.

Although implementing predictive analytics in healthcare may seem challenging, this is the future of care, and therefore, we must come together as an industry to make the privacy-first technological advances needed to ensure even more applications of predictive analytics in the future.