In the wake of the success of IBM’s Watson cognitive computing platform, data science specialist Apixio has launched its own version of the technology — called Iris — that will help healthcare providers organize and analyze their vast collections of patient data in order to deliver better care. Because patient data in most facilities has been amassed in an unstructured and unorganized manner over the years, it’s been nearly impossible to use it in any sort of cohesive manner. With solutions like Iris, healthcare providers are beginning to realize the possibilities brought by this data for higher quality and more efficient healthcare services.
Iris acts as a unifying central hub that accesses medical record data and processes it to reveal patterns and other insights, which can then be wielded to improve the overall functioning of the healthcare system. The platform’s unprecedented skill in deciphering medical charts from multiple healthcare facilities and sources — such as electronic healthcare records (EHRs), custom systems and scanned files — gives healthcare providers a much more accurate outlook of each patient’s conditions and risks, which allows them to better coordinate and customize diagnoses and treatments according to individual needs. Iris now powers major Apixio solutions such as its HCC Profiler, which mines clinical charts and medical billing data in order to produce extremely accurate patient risk scores.
Apixio developed data extraction tools and machine learning algorithms using natural language processing (NLP), which allows Iris to be completely self-learning and adaptable. The platform is built on a four-layered architecture that incorporates several open source and commercial products in order to facilitate this cutting-edge functionality. Underpinned by servers based on Intel’s Xeon processor and the Apache Hadoop solution stack, Iris is able to responsively handle incredible volumes of structured and unstructured data without sacrificing performance or scalability.
“Healthcare and technology are at a crossroads, and we are on the cusp of a data-rich healthcare future. If doctors and healthcare organizations know more about patients, they can make more informed decisions that will supercharge the value of care,” said Darren Schulte, CEO at Apixio. “The Iris platform unlocks the untapped 80 percent of patient data that lives in written medical records, unveiling insights that will change the delivery and consumption of healthcare as we know it.”
Edited by
Rory J. Thompson
