To maintain health, prevent illness, manage chronic conditions, and address emergencies, medical care is essential to ensuring overall well-being. With a blend of progressing wellness services and technology, some leaders are utilizing this changing domain to gain insights by collecting data from various sources for improving patient outcomes.
Greg Townsend leverages his data and analytics skills to drive clinical, financial, and operational performance in the healthcare sector. With over 25 years of experience as the Senior Vice President and Chief Data and Analytics Officer at AltaMed Health Services, he has dedicated his career in the medical industry to driving changes in people’s lives.
His journey began right after college, where he worked as a coordinator for developing a disease management program in North Carolina. This experience made him realize how to use his skills to improve the health landscape using data and analytics.
As a Senior Vice President and Chief Data and Analytics Officer at AltaMed Health Services, he aims for the firm to become one of the largest Federally Qualified Health Centers in the United States by providing patients with high-quality, culturally appropriate medical, dental, behavioral, and senior care services.
He believes that the rapidly changing data/analytic landscape will bring innovative clinical and operational tools driven by advanced analytics and AI. He is committed to driving policies and practices for these new technologies that help create safeguards and standards for application within a healthcare setting.
His most important key aspects include balancing the need for data-driven decision-making with human intuition and judgment, as he successfully aligns his factors in his daily work.
Let’s know more about this interesting career journey.
Can you please introduce yourself and your motivation to embark on this sector?
I entered the healthcare sector straight out of college where I worked as Coordinator for developing a disease management program in North Carolina.
In this role, I could use my skills to make tangible improvements in the health and quality of life of people suffering from chronic conditions. Having been “hooked” into this industry with that experience, I developed my skills to use data and analytics to drive clinical, financial, and operational performance.
This journey has allowed me to continue to grow in my desire to make a material impact on the health and well-being of those in the communities I am serving.
Could you please give a brief introduction to your company and its inception story?
AltaMed Health Services celebrates its 55th anniversary with pride as a longtime champion for access to health care and social justice in the community. What started as a single store-front free clinic in East Los Angeles has evolved to over 67 sites across Los Angeles and Orange counties and more than 5,200 employees.
Born out of the civil rights era and as part of the need for access to health care, AltaMed continues to strive toward an equitable and healthier Southern California.
In 2024, AltaMed will be one of the largest Federally Qualified Health Centers in the United States and will continue to provide patients with high-quality, culturally appropriate medical, dental, behavioral, and senior care services.
What drives your passion for data and analytics, and how do you see its impact on the future of your organization?
My passion for data and analytics continues to provide our organization with the tools it needs to improve patient care and service by making AltaMed a data-driven organization at all levels.
The rapidly changing data and analytical landscape will bring innovative clinical and operational tools driven by advanced analytics and AI.
How do you balance the need for data-driven decision-making with the need for human intuition and judgment in your work?
Our Data Strategy Team regularly meets with our internal customers to understand their current and future needs and to discuss emerging technology and capabilities to help drive our data strategy roadmaps for our customer base.
What are some of the most significant challenges you face in leveraging data and analytics to drive business outcomes, and how do you overcome them?
In our modernization efforts, it is challenging to take a “bridge and ferry” approach to modernization.
We work on the “bridge” in the modernization agenda to provide improved functionality and capabilities while we keep the “ferries” running, which represent the near-term high-value deliverables that cannot wait until the full “bridge” is built.
How do you stay current with the latest trends and advancements in data and analytics, and what role do you see these trends playing in your future work?
I regularly connect with my peers and serve on expert panels in my industry to learn from my peers and discuss emerging technologies that can have a disruptive influence on our current D&A model.
The degree to which “disruptive technology” comes with a high-value proposition is the nature of many of our debates and discussions.
What role do you see data and analytics playing in shaping the future of your industry, and how do you see yourself contributing to that future?
More and more data and analytics are the backbone of clinical and business operations in healthcare.
Being able to spot the right strategic moves to make in order to modernize and/or introduce new technologies is a key responsibility of my role.
How do you measure the success of your data and analytics initiatives, and what metrics do you use to evaluate their impact?
Our D&A initiatives are all aligned with business objectives and value propositions that drive the strategy forward.
In my opinion, investments in analytic initiatives must be directly tied to strategic plans for the organization.
Each of these strategic plans has D&A pillars that have specific evaluation plans tied to the overall success of the strategic initiative.
What are some of the most important skills or competencies you look for when hiring for data and analytics roles, and how do you develop these skills in your team members?
I look for staff that have the right preparation technically but are far more interested in a candidate’s ability to think critically, work with passion, and have a high EQ.
Each of these elements are piece of development plans for current staff and are expectation of managers to model for staff.
How do you ensure that data and analytics are integrated into the broader organizational strategy and decision-making processes?
We ensure this alignment by working with leadership to make certain there is a D&A pillar in all strategic initiatives aimed at answering the question, of what D&A needs are required to be successful in organizational strategies.
What are some of the most significant benefits you’ve seen from leveraging data and analytics in your work, and how have these benefits impacted your organization?
The highest value proposition for D&A tools remains to be, to better understand and predict patient needs and to help titrate clinical resources to those who have the highest risks.
How do you see the role of data and analytics evolving in the next 5–10 years, and what steps are you taking to prepare for these changes?
Advanced analytics and AI technologies appear to be on the brink of being disruptive technologies in healthcare.
This technology will help drive automation and assist and inform clinical decision-making. The CDAO’s role in this regard is to help drive the policy and practices for these new technologies to help create safeguards and standards for application within a healthcare setting.
