Optima Health, the health plan arm of integrated health system Sentara Healthcare has signed an agreement with Cardinal Analytx Solutions, an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled health insights company to deliver more proactive care to Optima Health members throughout Virginia. The deal marks Cardinal’s first relationship with an integrated health system.
AI-enabled Health Insights to Identify Potential High-Risk Members for Early Intervention and Proactive Care
The implementation of Cardinal’s AI-enabled health insights platform will Optima to proactively support both health plan members AND patients. By applying machine learning to the challenge of finding members of a population most likely to experience health decline, Cardinal enables Optima to intervene before an individual enters the downward spiral of worsening health and rising cost then combines these predictions with an assessment of the individual’s clinical impactibility and likelihood of engagement to deliver the right care sooner.
Unlike solutions focused exclusively on members who are already experiencing high costs or those using yesterday’s data science to address today’s problems, Cardinal Analytx takes a more modern, proactive approach. By applying machine learning to the challenge of finding members of a population most likely to experience health decline, Cardinal Analytx offers Optima Health the ability to intervene before an individual enters the downward spiral of worsening health and rising cost. Cardinal Analytx then combines these AI-enabled predictions with an assessment of the individual’s clinical impactibility and likelihood of engagement, which will give Optima Health the best chance to proactively support the people it serves.
Founded by Stanford professors Drs. Arnie Milstein and Nigam Shain in 2017, Cardinal Analytx integrates predictive insights with meaningful actions, identifying people at high risk of rising cost and worsening health in the future and matching them with interventions to prevent their decline. The system assesses the ability to impact individuals’ clinical trajectory – or likelihood to benefit from an intervention – to steer them toward better health outcomes. Cardinal also can predict specific types of high-cost, high-acuity events well in advance, providing the lead-time needed to match members with higher value providers in a timely manner
Why It Matters
“As part of a consumer-focused integrated health system, we believe Optima Health must be at the forefront of healthcare transformation. Our partnership with Cardinal Analytx extends this leadership, enabling us to fundamentally change how we deliver healthcare and truly begin solving for population health,” said John Coughlin, vice president, Informatics and Analytics at Optima Health. “Given that Cardinal Analytx’s offering was better at identifying rising-risk members than our existing approach, we are tremendously excited to leverage this solution at scale. I look forward to seeing the outcomes for our members as our clinical team begins proactive engagement, and ultimately extending these capabilities to the providers and patients in our health system.”
