Healthcare Analysis: what is it?

The role of analyst can be set out in contrasting ways. The word ‘Analyst’ now occurs in many different job titles. Arguably, it has become over-used and is starting to lose its meaning [see note 1]. Many other jobs also involve analysis, without having the word ‘Analyst’ made explicit.

There are fashions in job titles. Organisations are influenced by the choices of their peers. Job titles appear, become ubiquitous, are gradually eclipsed by newer styles, and eventually die out.  The activities carried out seem to be more persistent than the titles under which they are performed.

The table below is a snapshot showing the numbers of jobs being advertised simultaneously on the NHS jobs website [see note 2].

Job title type	Band 3	Band 4	Band 5	Band 6	Band 7	Total
Information Analyst	1		9	15	3	28
Data Analyst			2	4	1	7
Performance Analyst		2		1	1	4
Business Analyst				1	3	4
Business Intelligence Analyst			3	4	1	8
Systems Analyst					2	2
Finance Analyst				2	1	3
Application Support Analyst			2	2		4
IT Service Desk Analyst	1	4	4			9
Technical Analyst			1	2	4	7
Business Change Analyst			2			2
Miscellaneous others			4	8	4	16
Total	2	6	27	39	20	94

Clearly, at present, there are a lot of ‘Analyst’ jobs on offer. The levels of seniority vary.

How clearly differentiated are these differently styled roles? The main focus of each is suggested by the job title, but there are areas of overlap.

One way to look at this is to visualise work activities as relating to one or more of the following ‘layers’:

Layer	Involves
Communication	Deciding how things will be portrayed; creating and issuing publicity material
Decision	Senior managers deciding what to do
Planning	Trying to predict the future and determining what will be needed
Monitoring	Looking at how well the organisation is performing against any targets and standards; looking at peer organisations
Measuring	Measuring volumes of activity; trying to understand why things are changing; responding to queries; using reporting tools
Process	Understanding what the organisation does; doing it; documenting and training; devising contingency plans; changing ways of working
Data	Collecting and recording data; data quality and data standards; record keeping
Specialist applications	Determining requirements; assessing products; working with system suppliers; creating applications; implementing and maintaining new systems; training; resolving issues
General IT infrastructure	Configuring and maintaining hardware (servers, routers, network cabling, desktop PCs, printers etc) and software (email, office software, intranets etc); managing user accounts, licensing, upgrades; training and support
Supplies	Managing flows of routine and ad hoc purchases; logistics and storage, stock control; value for money
Buildings	Maintaining the condition of buildings; signposting; car parking; new buildings; site security

The following diagram illustrates the main areas of focus for various stylings of ‘Analyst’ in terms of the ‘layer’ model above:

A ‘Healthcare Analyst’ could be more-or-less any of these, excepting perhaps the more general IT roles. An understanding of the techniques used across all these roles helps select the right approach, or indeed the right person, to tackle any new problem.

It may intuitively feel that ‘Healthcare Analysis’ is rooted in numbers and graphs. This will certainly be a major focus for many, probably the majority of, analysts. But at its simplest, 'Heathcare Analysis' can be defined as the detailed study of selected aspects of healthcare.  ‘Healthcare Research’ could be similarly defined. Indeed, there are many common elements. The essential difference is that ‘Analyst’ roles are mainly intended to support management decisions while ‘Research’ is intended discover new things.

Through an analyst’s eye, healthcare appears a highly complex system of interactions between people with health issues and people offering health solutions.

People with health issues will generally be interacting as individuals. People providing healthcare will generally be acting as part of an organisation. There are exceptions to these generalisations, such as sole practitioners or family therapy. 

Some health issues persist for years. People with multiple health issues may be interacting with multiple health organisations simultaneously.

There are many mechanisms for providing and funding healthcare. Four different national models are shown in the following table [see note 3]:

Model	How it works	Example
The Beverage Model	Single payer national health service	UK
The Bismark Model	Social insurance or not-for-profit sickness funds	Germany
The National Health Insurance Model	Single payer national health insurance	Canada, Taiwan
The Out-of-Pocket Model	Market-driven	Third World

Even within a single country, things can change regularly.  Funding mechanisms impact significantly on the way healthcare is planned, commissioned, delivered and measured. This in turn shapes the focus for analysis and the nature and quality of the information available to support it.

Healthcare managers face a bewildering variety of issues on a daily basis. Much energy is spent trying to balance imbalances of capacity and demand. Much time too is spent wrestling with targets which have generally been set by people from outside their organisations.

Healthcare analysts face a bewildering variety of issues too. Much energy is spent trying to provide healthcare managers with clear explanations of why, or even whether, particular patient flows are speeding up or slowing down.

Although the nature of health problems and healthcare solutions varies enormously, the range of conceptual models and approaches is a lot more compact. Ideas drawn from one area can very often be applied to many other situations. 

Indeed, it is the ability to detect and properly understand patterns which defines a good analyst.

Note 1

Its general meaning can be quite wide ranging “someone whose job is to  study or examine something in detail" . Cambridge Dictionary (see link)

Note 2
Data from the NHS Jobs website (see link) sampled on 22/01/2016. Words denoting hierarchical rank, such as ‘Assistant’, ‘Senior, ‘Principal’ etc. have been removed; so have pointers to more specific subject areas. Bandings are from the NHS Agenda for Change system. Several jobs relating to Public Health information were omitted as they were aligned to a different pay structure

Note 3
This simplified model is used widely
http://www.pnhp.org/single_payer_resources/health_care_systems_four_basic_models.php
http://www.annfammed.org/content/11/1/84.1.full
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/countries/models.html

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