Advanced Analytics and AI/ML Investment in the Defense Health Agency’s Strategic Plan

Last week, the Defense Health Agency (DHA) published a new strategic plan for the fiscal years of 2023 through 2028. Strategic plans are vague by nature, so gleaning specific, contract level investment intelligence from them tends to be impossible. They nevertheless can be helpful for understanding at least where an agency is heading. To that end, this week’s post takes a look at some of the advanced analytics and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) investments listed in the plan for the DHA over the next five years.

The DHA anticipates that the analysis capabilities of the MHS GENESIS system will enable robust data analysis. In addition, however, the DHA intends to invest in prescriptive and predictive analytics capabilities to enhance patient care and to improve the administration of that care by providers.

Some specific areas of investment will include business intelligence and analytics tools for optimizing the allocation and execution of enterprise resources, such as provider productivity, medical logistics, pharmacy, and facilities management.

Simply implementing advanced analytics isn’t going to get the DHA where it needs to be because the DHA still needs to make governance and oversight changes, in addition to addressing some technical challenges. Here is a list of what the plan says the DHA needs to do:

• Implement data standards
• Establish a data quality monitoring process
• Create a data governance structure and policies
• Establish a data ethics framework
• Build a data analytics workforce to support key mission sets
• Create a manning model for military treatment facilities to support a data and analytics infrastructure

Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) have a place in this framework as well. Here’s where the DHA sees AI/ML fitting into its technology ecosystem.

• Automating Health Care: DHA plans to augment health care delivery by using AI/ML capabilities to drive automation. Leveraging AI/ML will help manage population health outside of the hospital as part of an emerging, continually connected health care ecosystem.
• Improving the Patient Experience: AI/ML will be used to enable real-time chat and asynchronous text as a way of facilitating access to health care resources.
• Enhancing Decision Making: Leveraging AI/ML for diagnostics and treatment ordering, the DHA plans to implement a patient-centered workflow review and redesign to support a better-informed workforce.

Wrapping up, it looks as if companies offering medical analytics and business intelligence capabilities will find a receptive audience at the DHA over the next five years. Advanced analytics and AI/ML capabilities will be in demand for both administrative and health care purposes. Interest should also grow as generative AI capabilities become more sophisticated and are able to handle more complex questions.