 Live from Seattle, Washington, it's The Cube at Tableau Conference 2014 brought to you by headline sponsor, Tableau. Here are your hosts, John Furrier and Jeff Kelly. Okay, welcome back everyone here, live in Seattle, Washington for Tableau's Data 14 conference, this is The Cube. This is Silicon Angles flagship program. We go out to the events, instruct the signal to the noise, I'm John Furrier. Our next guest is Dr. Randy Fagan, Chief Administrative Officer for Texas Institute for Robotic Surgery. Welcome to The Cube. Thanks. Love getting folks on who are using data and a variety of use cases. You guys have surgical, robotic surgical, involves humans, involves machines. Before we get into the data discussion, lay it out, what is your job? What does the environment look like and is it machines, is it working with patients, is it equipment? What is it? Yeah, so yes. So we work with a hospital corporation of America. They have 98 of their hospitals that have surgical robotics, the Stavinci surgical system. And we manage information for that. So everything from the patient care aspects, the cost aspects of it, the reimbursement aspects, the nurse, the training, all those things that go into creating an exceptional care experience for the patient. And our role really is to find ways for us to increase the quality of care that we deliver, do it in the most cost effective way, and create growth. So I got to ask you on the data question. Is there compliance issues? Is it all private data for patients? Is it inside the organization? Is it public? Yeah, no, the information all lives inside the organization, even though only some of it is HIPAA, things that contain private personal healthcare information. Much of it is not, much of it is things that could be shared, and all live as proprietary inside of HCA's firewalls. So a lot of folks out there who might not know the inside, what's inside the ropes, if you will, of what goes on inside these high-end environments where technology is really creating a lot of transformation. Yeah. What is the vision around how you guys are using data with the robotic surgery? Can you share some insight into some of the things that are going on at the, I won't say bleeding edges, that was the wrong phrase to use in this case, but like, what is the core innovation? Yeah, when we look at the delivery of healthcare, obviously we want the best care for our patients, the best care for our loved ones. And in today's healthcare environment, it's critical that we do that in the most fiscally responsible way. And robotics is not an inexpensive way of treating patients, but there's ways of making sure that we're being fiscally responsible and increasing the quality of care that we're delivering in the process. So HCA has taken a very frontline stance to say we're going to look at this from an organizational approach, we're going to manage the information and the care of these patients to make sure that in today's healthcare environment, we're improving the quality of care to the highest degree and we're doing it in the most fiscally responsible way. Okay, so walk me through an example, just so the folks who put connected dots now. So you got the data using innovation, give us an example. I'm a patient, I walk in, I mean, is it part of an existing records database? Yeah, there's loads of information that we collect. You know, when it comes to how we utilize information, this is where Tableau becomes an outstanding partner in Technion who helped build our database for this as well. We're absolutely critical. We provide or we collect information, everything from the demographics, things like the patient's name, their age, their date of birth, the nurse who was in the operating room, the surgeon doing the operation, the operation they did, how long the surgery took, how much blood loss was there, when did they leave the hospital after how many days, how much did we spend delivering that amount of care, how much do we actually get from the insurance companies. All of those pieces of information are all things that we capture. In an effort, again, to figure out how do we create the most consistent, high-quality product at the lowest cost possible. So, what does the user get out of it? Just better care? Do they get the data? Or does it stay within? Yeah, all this information stays within HCA. We're using it to provide the highest quality care possible. All right, so I've got to ask you a question. What is the most amazing thing that you've done with the data? Yeah, I'll tell you, one of the most incredible things that we've done, we try to answer kind of the broad general question. At what level of experience do you need to get a nurse to to deliver the highest level of care? And you expect, you know, over time, nurses may start off with low experience and they're kind of inconsistent with the quality of care and as they gain experience that should ramp up. And at some point, the increase in the experience that a nurse has is not going to result in a huge increase in the quality of care that's delivered. So, at what point do you go from, I'm fairly well experienced and deliver fairly good care to I'm really well experienced and deliver exceptional care? What is that point in time? And what we found utilizing the database that Technion built using Tableau as the interface that experience is not the answer. The answer is actually around discipline, which is fantastic because as somebody who manages healthcare, if we can scale, I can scale discipline. I can't scale experience. Experience is just what happens to us as life goes on. But if we can actually- Describe what does discipline mean? Like just show up on time or procedural things? It's crazy, but there are certain core behaviors that if you manage people to those core behaviors, it results in a whole bunch of downstream endpoints. So, for example, I've got a 11 year old daughter and a 14 year old son. It's like good habits, right? Yeah, exactly. I can't teach my kids how to behave in every situation that they ever exist in. But if I provide them with a good foundation, they'll make good decisions no matter where they go. And the same is actually true in healthcare. There are behaviors, there are habits, there are disciplines that we ask our folks to do that we don't necessarily always manage to. But if we manage to those disciplines, it will actually affect a whole bunch of downstream behaviors that are exceptionally good for the patients. So that's awesome. So you've got behavioral data and you've got context now. So let's tie that together. I love that survey, that insight, because this is really what it's all about. I mean, you could do statistical modeling all you want about experience and behavior. You guys found that out right away. Now you put that in practice, it changes your hiring process, probably changes a lot of things for you guys. So now let's go to the hospital. They have all kinds of these issues, right? How long do patients stay into the bed? Who are the right personnel decisions? Equipment to use. Could you talk about any other use cases along those lines where you've seen some incremental and or evolutionary change? Yeah, I'll tell you, one of the most powerful things about our use of Tableau and data analytics is the ability not just to create real time information, but to create real time accountability. So with our ability to actually extract this information in real time, allowing us to analyze it in real time and transparently provide that information to folks, it changes people's actions. It changes their accountability by providing nurses and surgeons and administrators with real time data, not last quarters data, not last weeks data, but things from right now. It changes their behaviors right now and it's allowing us to learn and provide better care at a pace that's completely unprecedented. I love what you just said there. It sounds like what we try to do at theCUBE here. We live, we extract the data, we analyze it. So let's do that. Let's talk about the show here at Tableau. What are you impressed with? What are you excited about with Tableau? And obviously the software has a good product, people like it, great loyalty amongst their customer base, but still a young company. What do you like about the show here? What's your analysis of the show? Yeah, I think probably one of the most exceptional things about this show is the ability for folks like myself in one industry to be able to interact with folks outside of my industry, but who are using the same product for the same endpoints. I mean, we all, whether we're delivering healthcare or whether we are selling cars or whether we own restaurants, we're all utilizing information to deliver the highest level of service in whatever industry it is that we are working in. So to be able to interface with those folks in an environment where we all use the same product for a similar purpose in different ways, man, that's probably the greatest part of being here. You know, that brings up a topic that just pops in my head. I want to talk to you about the network effect. You leave your industry, you're networking with other folks from other industries, you get empowered, you make some connections, relationships. That's also a data phenomenon. So I got to ask you, within your data, because you're now in a mode from what I can understand you saying, is you collect everything. Yeah, now you collect everything, store it, now you work with it with Tableau, and you make these breakthroughs that change your business. Is there a network effect with the data? So you can collect all the different diversity. So can you share or comment on, has that provided a network effect in your business and for your customers? Whether it's changed how they do personnel decisions or what not? Yeah, it changes certainly the way, I think one of the areas where we see it changes, the way that we staff rooms. So when a patient comes to have a surgery, we've got, whether you've got six operating rooms or 12 operating rooms or 26 operating rooms, there are folks who allocate staff to support those rooms. And it's challenging sometimes. You've got competing needs, you've got different folks with different levels of expertise, and how do you actually figure out who to put and what room is based on the level of expertise, based on the surgeon, based on the case, being able to leverage real-time data analytics to provide the ability to put nurses into the right rooms to care for the right patients, not in a way that is anecdotal, not because I've known this person for 30 years, but I've got the real-time data. That allows us to deliver better care more consistently. Dr. Randy, I want to ask you a question around your peers, you mentioned outside of your, but inside your industry. What do you talk to folks about as when they ask you, hey, I want to do what you're doing. I want to leverage data for my organization. What would you share to your peers around? How to approach that mindset, technology, there's some big career decisions being made. And there's a lot of salespeople putting, knocking on the door saying, buy my tool, buy my platform. Big money to put down, big cost of ownership. What advice would you share to you? I think for folks who are getting into data analytics, the advice I would give is, data analytics has to be a conversation. I mean, this is not a one and done. You don't ask a question, get an answer, and act on it. There has to be a conversation. So if you're going to utilize data analytics and leverage it to really create exceptional service to whatever your clientele is going to be, it has to be an ongoing real-time conversation that never ends. And it's honestly products like Tableau that are allowing us to do that. It's not a ask a question, wait two weeks, get an answer. It's a real-time information exchange in a way that I get as much as I give. Data is an ongoing real-time conversation that never ends. I totally agree. I think one of the things that we always get out of these big data shows is the insight of, data should be like a Google search. You can do as many as you want and get the answers ultimately that you want to look for. So final question for you is, share with the folks out there, what's going on at the show here? The folks not here. Tell them what's the vibe, what's happening here in the show. I'll tell you, I don't even know how to describe it. It's like a cult. I mean, it's truly, these folks, they're some of the most innovative, passionate folks that I've had the privilege of being able to interact with. And I'll tell you, the ability to learn from this show is not just about the sessions that you go to and the general sessions and the speakers. It's everywhere. It's where you grab lunch. It's grabbing a soda in the hallway. I mean, there is literally just a real vibe in your words of information exchange going on and every single nook and cranny of the show. Well, certainly visualization is hot. Today, Apple announced the new iPhone 6 plus the iWatch. Again, this explosive innovation around user experience. Is that a big part of your decision-making when you look at the future of technology meets society, certainly in healthcare? I mean, user experience seems to be everything. User experience is critical and our ability to react and act in real time. Dr. Randy Fagan, Chief Administrative Officer of Texas Institute of Robotic Surgery here inside the CUBE Tableau Conference. We're live in Seattle. This is theCUBE. I'm John Furrier. We'll be right back with our next guest after the short break.