International Institute for Analytics

This article describes the potential for AI to augment risk estimation for both individual investors and financial market assets. AI processes vast amounts of a variety of data to identify patterns underpinning processes and metrics. Evolving data resources including digital touch points provide AI with attributes that can enhance risk estimation to ultimately augment elements of modern portfolio theory.

Visualization techniques enable users to overcome the tedious activity of examining detailed data corresponding to functional areas and provides them with an easy to comprehend view of performance attributes, providing timely decision support from digital resources. However, despite the advantage of robust graphics, visualization often suffers from a major limitation. As users consume information from visual platforms, they often take the next step in the decision support process, which entails inquiring as to what the factors or variables are that drive performance metrics. In other words, what is causing KPIs to move? In statistical terms, performance metrics are dependent or target variables and users quickly seek to understand the driver or independent variables that affect dependent variables.

So you’ve jumped on the analytics bandwagon to improve decision making and process efficiency with strategic information, but so far your plans are not working out…what’s the problem you ask? As powerful as analytics can be to provide decision support in organizations, there are a number of factors that can render analytic initiatives lackluster or of little value

Hospitals face increased pressures to lower cost while maintaining quality care for patients. At the same time, they are seeing increased demand for services, particularly in the area of mental health.

Many mental healthcare facilities rely on governmental funding to provide a host of mental health services. Unfortunately, the funding provided by the government is shrinking due to continued federal budgetary pressures. To make matters more difficult, the demand for mental health services has experienced drastic increases over the past few years due to factors such as increased demand from returning military service members, the recent deterioration of the macro economy, (e.g. increased unemployment, and stagnant wage growth) and an aging population.

This brief describes research that is currently being conducted to identify three different types of errors in:

1. Medical diagnosis
2. Medication administration
3. Use of electronic health records (EHRs)

Clearly, quality of care and cost of care are on a collision course. Is it possible to develop a system that establishes and supports our Nation’s need for quality, affordable health care, or has decades of fee-for-service payment systems that are independent of quality of care and/or patient outcomes made it impossible to reform heath care delivery? Unfortunately, as long as health care facilities, providers, and suppliers fail to work together and independently treat patients as profit centers, there appears to be little hope for health care reform.