Population health is a burgeoning field that holds great potential for revolutionizing the way that healthcare is carried out. But before this potential can be realized, there are some hurdles that need be overcome.

1. Population
Health
Five Hurdles In
Mark behl

2. The health industry has yet to
define the true meaning of
population health.

3. According to
improvingpopulationhealth.org,
population health is defined as the
health outcomes of a group of
individuals, including the distribution
of such outcomes within the group.

4. Before population health becomes
common practice, there will be some
hurdles that need to be addressed.

5. Let’s take a look at some of these
hurdles according to
healthcareitnews.com.

6. 1. Lack of Compliance by
Clinicians

7. Many health networks have applied
evidence-based pathways, protocols and
decision trees outlining how they want
patients treated by doctors and nurses.

8. However, getting clinicians to comply as
well is another hurdle in itself.

9. 2. Too Little Clinical Care for
Patients

10. Poor adherence continues and it leads to
massive over-utilization of the system
due in part to a number of different
technologies coming to market.

11. Patients and health insurance companies
are changing the way people pay for
health insurance.

12. 3. Population Health "Hotspotting"
Not Yet Widespread

13. The practice of population health involves
providers taking a look at data analytics to find
patient populations that consume large portions
of cost care and identify ways to bring and
change to those population subsets.

14. However, because it’s still an emerging
practice, the data is not quite there yet to be
scrubbed.

15. 4. Abundance of Data

16. Sometimes when you’re trying to solve or find a
problem, data can help. The problem is that
when you have too much data to analyze, it
becomes hard to figure out where to start.

17. Everyday, patients are constantly generating
new data and it’s hard to account for every
piece of data.

18. 5. The Need to Activate More
Patients

19. Providers need to better figure out how to
incorporate their patients, whether that’s as
simple as taking medications regularly or...

20. ...actually changing long-standing lifestyle
habits, to drive adherence because it’s the
key to better outcomes, reducing
overutilization and ultimately slashing costs.

21. Mark Behl
Renown Health