One of my co-workers here at Blue Cross is doing some amazing things. I’ve talked about him before on these pages. He and his team are building Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana into a first-class data powerhouse. Why should you care about this?
Imagine if we could predict who is on the verge of needing hospitalization, and when. Imagine if we could tell how medication is working and whether it’s being taken appropriately for a million people. Imagine if we could help avoid illness or serious disease right before it happened. These data efforts have begun doing just that, thanks to the actions of the Blue Cross clinical team of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dietitians and social workers.
This leader is Somesh Nigam and he’s our Chief Analytics and Data Officer. Just this week, he was named as part of Modern Healthcare’s 2022 class of Top Innovators. If you are doing work that has the potential to change health care for the better, Modern Healthcare notices. They are very well-regarded in the health care industry.
Modern Healthcare annually recognizes leaders from around the country who are instituting innovation and leading transformative programs that improve care by achieving results we can measure and observe. Twenty-first century health care organizations –,the good ones – have strong clinical and financial goals. Somesh’s use of cutting-edge data initiatives caught the eyes of Modern Healthcare. I think it’s amazing how that work is helping you, our members, right here in Louisiana.
Somesh and his team have built a best-in-class analytics and data organization right here at Blue Cross, using powerful data and software designed by us. The data platform is called Pi (Performance Insights), and it uses artificial intelligence, Blue AI, to improve members’ health and lives.
Let me let Somesh tell you about Pi in his own words:
This honor from Modern Healthcare focuses on how the essential work Somesh and his team have provided led to innovation and collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the early days of the pandemic, Somesh was able to direct his team to “see” COVID-19 in Louisiana even before the first cases were known in the state.
That effort evolved and became essential to caring for our members and all Louisianians. Blue Cross developed the COVID-19 Louisiana Outbreak Tracker, allowing the state to make projections about rates of hospitalizations, deaths and health care facilities’ capacity. This gave state officials important information they needed to allocate crucial medical resources, implement mitigation measures like school closings and mask mandates and, ultimately, save lives.
Somesh is just one of what we call Thought Leaders here at Blue Cross. You can visit Blue Cross’ Thought Leaders page on its online newsroom to view research updates and videos from Somesh and other experts. For updates from its Thought Leaders, follow Blue Cross on social media @BCBSLA. Blue Cross posts regularly on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok.
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