Is your organizational data sharing its secrets with you?

By now we are almost deafened by the data science, AI and ML chorus through Youtube lectures, ever popping data science course advertisements and stories about how data science earned millions for a big corporation. Almost every person, irrespective of age, is talking about data and predictability. The question about how 'Google' knows where I am, my pictures, my videos, my calendar, where was I last year, and my best friends is nothing new and it is asked with awe about the technology surrounding every second of our existence. Overall, the words 'data','analytics' are now the part of mysticism that makes its presence felt at every corner of the world, urban and rural alike. But how it came into being? How it is possible for a company situated a long way somewhere in US to track my every moment?

Companies like Google, Amazon et al are leveraging the state of the art technology 'somehow' to track movements and activities of signed up users. That 'somehow' piece is now a part of technology folklore which only a few technofiles and so called nerds/geeks can understand. But that 'technical' part is of no consequence to small shops and organizations who want to use data for their businesses. Lets see where they stand in their aspiration of being data driven.

Recently I had started talking to a seasoned healthcare practitioner, a friend of mine, who is a great practitioner of his own trade and already in the business for 15 years. The clinic started as a small unit of 14x14 size now is spread in a sprawling two story building. What started with a rented chair now houses 8 chairs with all the sophisticated imaging and state of the art x-ray machines. He started with two novice assistants and today he handles a team of 6 qualified doctors, 4 clinic assistants and 2 machine operators. Being a passionate follower of his teachers/mentors, a techno-file, a well networked professional and continuous learner that he is, he is now at a stage where he can set up a new clinic without planning too much, with the experience, expertise and brand value gained over all these years of hard-work. At this stage he is now thinking of expanding his operations at another site. And this is where we got talking..

"Aniket, you know I am so confident about the profession and have enough contacts to make it successful. This town knows me very well. If I decide to arrange an event, I can make it successful on my own..and this much is quite sufficient knowledge isn't it.. "

"I really appreciate your confidence and proud of where you stand in terms of stature and business acumen. But you know Mohan, the time has changed, there is competition and now you should think of using data and digital branding to sustain your business..it has been a great journey for you..word of mouth and customer trust you gained is the biggest capital you've earned..when you started there were hardly 2-3 seasoned practitioners like you in the town..you have been from this town hence people trusted you even when you were new..situations were favorable for your business..but now there are too many players in the market..atleast 20 similar practitioners in the town..many of them are leveraging digital marketing and social media..but lets not get into talking digital marketing..lets talk about your business need you just mentioned.."

"What about that? It is simple. I have got a place which I can use. I will spend on making it look attractive for young people. I will appoint 2 staff members to handle it and thats all. If you say, I will create a website where people will come and read about it."

"That's right Mohan..but don't you think you should use some data to decide on what you want to offer? whom to cater to? what services you offer? you should have substantial data to back your decisions..you should keep verifying the thumb rules time to time as the rules of the game may change over time.. "

"What are you talking? and what data you are mentioning? why do we need that?"

"Well Mohan, there are already people talking about your business on Google and on various social media platforms..let's analyze their feedback from there..wouldn't that tell us what people are really liking in your business?"

"No Aniket, to tell you the truth those feedback comments, positive or negative, are all managed feedbacks, meaning those are not genuine comments..people just come and type any nonsense..I don't believe it..at times my marketing friend asks paid writers to write favorable reviews..if I have too many bad reviews on my site it gives bad impression..so my marketing friend asks me to write a good comment for every bad comment just to balance it out.."

"Oh really? " I was stunned but not shaken..I already knew from some other social media buying experiences. "So then do you maintain any data in your office? there are already some mobile apps that help get doctor appointment..we can use the data from them right? " The naive analyst inside me popped out..

"You know Aniket, that data entry is a big problem. My junior doctors dont like doing it as they dont feel motivated to do it. I am tired of telling them. I had appointed an IT guy to set up data entry on computer, but it became overhead. I am done with all your IT and application development. I removed the IT guy. Now all data goes to this cloud app. If we share our data with the app company, they will charge me for using my own data. Hence we dont enter much data on these apps. "

"Well Mohan. I get your point. Your junior doctors feel it is an overhead activity. The mobile app company can leverage data for financial gain hence you don't share much data there. Also these mobile app guys store the data on cloud and you are not sure about its security. Your point is well taken..but Mohan, the question remains whether you have any patient data stored somewhere and whether it is meaningful..do you atleast write about it?"

"I am confused Aniket..what meaningful data? Can we buy it from somewhere? I want to have all data.. "

"Mohan, you are working in your field for last 15 years..you keep all those treatment registers right?"

"Right..we have to keep those registers from compliance perspective..each and everything.."

"and you write about patients visiting your clinic..their details right?"

"Of course my dear friend..we keep entire thing written in our registers..samajhlo puri kundlihi likhte hai..when they come what was the problem..how we treated them..what were treatment details..blood urine sample test results..how many times they came..medicines prescribed to them..how long they took to recover..everything.. "

"Do you also write their details like age, gender, diabetic or non-diabetic, high-BP or low-BP.."

"Yes of course..I am doctor..we have to know all those basic details and we make sure to write all of it down.."

"Well Mohan..that's the data we need to capture..if we capture it well you dont need to go anywhere for authentic data..it is your OWN data!!! and you must use it for your own benefit" I insisted..

Mohan went as usual with his business while I got thinking of how to collect it at one place..when checked with the website of app developer the only data we got was the name, last name and patient ID..rest everything was blank..left purposefully blank by practitioners for their own safety and data privacy..but even with blank fields we came to know the important fields and details that are sought by marketeers like basic issue, various types/categories of basic issues, treatment categories - immediate and long term, sub-categories in treatment categories and typical medicines prescribed per issue type. As the picture started unfolding, we also came to know a lot of interesting facts about how patient IDs were mentioned, how we could measure the number of time taken for treatment, what can be measures of profitability, what can be factors affecting patient's sentiments and so on..and like all american healthcare practices..we got a wealth of information regarding the categorization..but to keep it simple we only accepted the categories that mattered and threw the rest out of scope..

Once I had all the data parameters I coded it in the information gathering template and  created a lot of dummy data and showed Mohan a presentation with the very basic factors and basic graphs..

"What's this Aniket..how do you know so much about my business?" Mohan was surprised.

"Don't worry Mohan..this is all dummy data..but the graphs and charts are now really telling you a lot about what is happening at your place like monthly footfall, categories of patients, categories of issues, types of treatments and how all of these factors are affecting each other..and I am not even asking how much money you make as that's not my intention. I just want you to understand what your own data is telling you..if you fill in the right information in this template and use basic software you can see the graphs yourself..and make sense of your own business through this..but for that you must enter the authentic data in the template..there is a lot of work there.."

"No problem sir, I will ask 2 of my staff members to finish it in a week..no big deal.."my friend Mohan really understood the gist of being data driven..and he proved it as the data was ready in a week's time and he started another clinic while leveraging the data of his own clinic..atleast business people dont need to visit an astrologer too frequently if they start harnessing and utilizing their own data for decision making..do you agree?