Southeast Texas Medical Associates, LLP James L. Holly, M.D. Southeast Texas Medical Associates, LLP


Letters - The Importance of Data Analytics in Physician Practice - Letter to Andrew Dillon, Dean Un. of Texas, Information Technology School
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July 10, 2015

Dear Dr. Dillon:

Through The RWJF Leadership Network, I was directed to your keynote address, "How Technology & Info Serves Humans or Not."   Outstanding address, I have referred it to my IT and Executive Management Staff. 

As a brief introduction, I am the CEO of Southeast Texas Medical Associates, LLP in Beaumont, Texas.  We are a multi-specialty medical group with 44 providers. We have used electronic medical records (EMR) since 1998.   SETMA has been involved with RWJF in the LEAP Study since 2011: see http://jameslhollymd.com/letters/Robert-Wood-Johnson-Foundation-PCT-LEAP.  In May, 1999, SETMA experienced four seminal events (see http://jameslhollymd.com/your-life-your-health/may-1999-four-seminal-events-in-setmas-history) which defined our future.

These events included the morphing from EMR to electronic patient management (EPM) and the designing of a philosophical foundation to our work through systems thinking (The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge -- http://jameslhollymd.com/EPM-Tools/pdfs/designing-an-emr.pdf).  Additional discussions of the impact of Senge's work on SETMA can be found at http://jameslhollymd.com/Your-Life-Your-Health/pdfs/changing-healthcare-metanoia-a-shift-of-mind.pdf; http://jameslhollymd.com/Your-Life-Your-Health/pdfs/medical-records-beyond-electronic-medical-records.pdf.  The following is an important description of this work: 
http://jameslhollymd.com/Your-Life-Your-Health/pdfs/HIMSS-Spanning-The-Specialties-to-Bring-You-The-Best-Standards.pdf.

SETMA has discovered that while technology can treat disease, it cannot produce health.  (See http://jameslhollymd.com/Your-Life-Your-Health/pdfs/value-virtue-trust-and-hope-the-foundation-of-health-improvement.pdf).  And, we believe that while EMR and EPM are tools of our work only data analytics can effectively guide us (see http://jameslhollymd.com/presentations/pdfs/tx-himss-the-importance-of-data-analytics-in-physician-practice.pdf).  The following addresses the power of data in our work:  http://jameslhollymd.com/Your-Life-Your-Health/Patient-Centered-Medical-Home-The-Power-of-Data-in-Designing-the-Future-of-Healthcare.

We are also challenged by Abraham Lincoln's quote from 1858:  "if we can first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we can better judge what to do and how to do it." 

If you have the interest, I would enjoy hosting you for a visit to SETMA or visiting with you in Austin.  The following gives you more information about SETMA: http://jameslhollymd.com/Accreditations/pdfs/accreditations.pdf.

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

James (Larry) Holly, M.D.
C.E.O. SETMA
www.jameslhollymd.com

Adjunct Professor
Family & Community Medicine
University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio School of Medicine

Clinical Associate Professor
Department of Internal Medicine
School of Medicine
Texas A&M Health Science Center


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