In an attempt to put the patient first in healthcare, Congress and President Obama in 2015 approved a bipartisan bill for United States healthcare reform. The bill is known as “Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015,” or MACRA. Among the major provisions of MACRA is the Quality Payment Program. Under the Quality Payment Program, physicians and nurses receive positive, neutral or negative Medicare payment adjustments based upon a “Patient Satisfaction Score,” that…

“The problem is that, in many cases, big data is not used well. Companies are better at collecting data – about their customers, about their products, about competitors – than analyzing that data and designing strategy around it.”  –

How can this still be the case? I mean after 5+ years of experience with Big Data, have we not learned a darn thing? We get the following observation from no less than the Harvard Business School:

The new…

A lot of times when the prevalent industry trends are discussed among industry folks, there are usually two directions in which the conversation goes. It is either varying states of disbelief at the rate of change within the business and IT landscapes; or it is enthusiastic agreement on the importance of moving with the times and adopting a digital infrastructure.…

Digital transformation is underway in practically every industry in the world. Companies, businesses and organizations throughout the world are leveraging their assets, big data and analytics for an edge over their competitors. In fact, data analytics and big data have gained popularity to the extent that data analysis for differentiation is…

As mentioned by Tom Davenport few years back,Data Scientist is still a hottest job of century. Data scientists are those elite people who solve business problems by analyzing tons of data and communicate the results in a very compelling way to senior leadership and persuade them to take action.

They have the critical responsibility to understand the data and help business get more knowledgeable about their customers.

The importance of Data Scientists has rose to top due to two…

When talking to clients about their business goals, most business executives are pretty clear as to what they want to accomplish, such as reducing customer churn or reducing inventory costs or improving quality of care or improving product line profitability. But these “one dimensional” business initiatives really don’t push the organization’s innovative thinking. For example, I can easily reduce marketing costs if I significantly reduce advertising and promotional spending. Or I can easily…

It’s hard to get into the world of the Internet of Things (IOT) without eventually talking about Digital Twins. I was first exposed to the concept of Digital Twins when working with GE. Great concept. But are Digital Twins only relevant to physical machines such as wind turbines, jet engines, and locomotives? What can we learn about the concept of digital twins that we can apply more broadly – to other physical entities (like contracts and agreements) and even humans?…

My job has the great advantage of bringing me in touch with some outstanding and truly brilliant people.  As an example, last year I spoke at the PrecisionAg Vision Conference in Phoenix (and I’ll be speaking there again this fall on October 12), and ran into a number of companies that were applying data science and big data principals to the world of agriculture.  Having grown up in Charles City, Iowa, I have a special place in my heart for farming and the importance of agriculture to the…