Big data and data analytics are trendy topics that have seeped into everyday business, news cycles and culture. All manners of activities from social media marketing to finance to health care are investing heavily to capture and analyze large streams of data to predict and enhance decision-making.
Which is why USF St. Petersburg’s Kate Tiedemann College of Business (KTCOB) and the St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation (EDC) have partnered on the Data Analytics Executive Roundtable. This forum brings together local business, technology, health care and other leaders in the community to discuss the latest technology and trends around data analytics. It is part of an effort to strengthen the already thriving data analytics industry in St. Petersburg, which has been identified by the City’s Grow Smarter Strategy as a target sector primed for tremendous growth in the coming years.
“Being partners in this forum has allowed us to understand the pain points businesses have and the data issues we need to address from an education standpoint,” said Sri Sundaram, Dean of the Kate Tiedemann College of Business. “This partnership has already added tremendous value, leading to the implementation of two new programs around Data Analytics that will ensure the university is best prepared to meet the needs of local growing companies.”
Around 40 attendees came to USF St. Petersburg on June 27 for the third installment in this series. They heard from doctors and data scientists at John Hopkins All Children’s Hospital on the use of data analytics to advance knowledge and improve outcomes in pediatrics. The forum provided an inside look at how the hospital’s cutting-edge, predictive analytics model is transforming healthcare beyond Tampa Bay.
“Artificial Intelligence models developed in St. Petersburg by Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, will help children all over the world,” said Mohamed Rehman, M.D., chair of the Department of Anesthesia at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and professor of anesthesiology and critical care and pediatrics (pending academic review) with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “We act locally but think globally.”
Dr. Rehman was joined by Luis Ahumada, Director of Predictive Analytics at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, who shed insight on how the prominent pediatric hospital is using big data and predictive analytics to provide children the highest quality of care possible while improving safety and lowering cost. By predicting risk and analyzing health care processes, Johns Hopkins All Children’s data science team hopes to improve physicians’ decision making.
“John Hopkins is investing to get the right information at the right time in the right context for better health care outcomes,” said Ahumada. “Health care organizations are adapting to a new culture of data-driven decision making that will inform everything from antibiotic recommendations to concussion risks.”
“Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital is a staple not only of our innovation district, but of our region at large,” J.P. DuBuque, President, St. Petersburg EDC said. “The work they are doing has as great of an impact on the healthcare industry as it does to those in financial services and manufacturing, alike.”
Earlier forums provided the opportunity for KTCOB faculty to present current curriculum related to data analytics and assess how course offerings are meeting the needs of existing St. Petersburg companies like Raymond James, FIS Global and Tech Data.
Currently there is an Institute for Data Analytics and Visualization at the college, which serves the city and Pinellas County by conducting applied research, addressing business challenges and offering professional development programs. Specific projects conducted through the Institute are supervised by faculty and involve students, providing hands-on training for future data scientists. In addition, the College’s Master of Business Administration offers focus tracks in Business Analytics and in Health Care Analytics to address the growing need for data analytics knowledge in these realms.
USFSP and the St. Petersburg EDC are planning the next forum around data analytics for the fall of 2018.