Joining Wikibon’s Dave Vellante and Jeff Kelly on SiliconANGLE’s theCube was Mark Jackson, Manager of Business Intelligence and Management Reporting for Piedmont Healthcare. Piedmont Healthcare is one of the largest physician-owned and directed, multi-specialty groups in North Carolina and the Southeast region.

With the advent of the Affordable Care Act, Piedmont has recently gone live with their electronic medical records program across their 5 principle hospitals. As the new regulations come online, the use of analytics and the speed and scalability associated with analytics has to be part of the solution.

In Jackson’s early days with the company, he notes the workload was almost overwhelming considering not only the overall amount of incoming requests but also the time allotted to meet those requests. By bringing Tableau into the operation, tasks that once took as long as 5 hours now take 1 hour or less. This has presented a marked improvement in the speed of insight to users company-wide.

One of the key tenets behind Tableau is the democratization of data. Piedmont Healthcare has adopted the same idea for their own day-to-day operation. “You need the people with the boots on the ground, living and breathing the problems, to have the ability to solve the problems they encounter,” stated Jackson. “We work with the end users to help make them as good as they can be at working with the data to solve unique problems.”

Of course, having the ability and utilizing the ability are often two different things. Jackson commented that his job involves not only finding the best data solutions but also selling his vision to each individual group. They provide on-site training, as well as webinars and a monthly newsletter. Individuals in the organization may not leave as Tableau experts but they certainly have a better understanding of how Tableau can help them solve individual issues. Jackson and his team’s job is then to step in and work with them to formulate the best way possible to do what it is they are trying to do.

Jackson, recognizing the relative youth of Business Intelligence, concedes many of his end-users will revert to what they knew previously. This occurs even though the previous standard might take far longer in presenting them with an answer Tableau could have provided far faster.

Additionally, upper management has to embrace the shift in culture required of Big Data Analytics. Business Intelligence professionals have to work to train them to accept data analytics in this new format.

The import of Business Intelligence is paramount in light of the Affordable Care Act. The unknowns associated with the act can be scary to a lot of people. But Jackson sees the potential uses of the incoming information and is excited by it.

One example Piedmont is currently undertaking is data mining their imaging systems. By setting certain parameters, they are looking for patients who would be excellent candidates for valve surgery. By doing this, analytics is assisting the physician who has several patients at any given time.

As Business Intelligence matures, Jackson believes the constraints associated with HIPAA will have to be addressed. HIPAA doesn’t tell a healthcare organization the data is off limits for future business decisions, however there is a fear that data will somehow be compromised. And, as Jackson states, that fear is not unwarranted. “For every control you put in place, people are smart. Fraud can happen.

However, Jackson believes information is definitely a far greater asset than a liability. As HIPAA was conceived before the explosion of Big Data, Jackson sees the Act as creating more problems than it solves at this point.

Kelly stated that before the next round of legislation is written, data professionals have to advocate for the better use of data from a business perspective. If new legislation is brought about without advocacy and input, the new act will be hard to undo at that point.

SiliconANGLE’s theCUBE is broadcasting live on September 9 & 10 from the Tableau Customer Conference in Washington, D.C.  Be sure to join us for the live broadcasts or visit our YouTube channel for any interviews you might have missed.