The Sankara Nethralaya Academy hosted a two-day conference on Healthcare Data Analytics on 27th and 28th of August 2022 in hybrid mode.  The conference was held in partnership with the International Association for Healthcare Data Analytics.  The theme of the conference was Healthcare Data science for improving quality, safety and research. The Consortium of Accredited Health care Organisation (CAHO), Schulke, and Maithree – a NGO for special children were co-sponsors of the event.

The pre-conference symposium was conducted at The Sankara Nethralaya Academy, Dr. V. G. Appukutty campus, Guindy on 27th August 2022.  There were two tracks- one for students and beginners and another for Healthcare professionals.  The pre-conference workshops were attended by more than 75 participants in virtual and in person mode.

The Chief Guest, Dr. Thennarasu Maruthamuthu, M.Sc, PGDBS, Ph.D., lit the lamp and inaugurated the proceedings in the presence of Dr. Anuja R. Singh, Principal and HOD, G. Senthilkumar, Asst. Professor – Management Studies, TSNA, Dr. V. V. Jaichandran, Department of Anesthesiology, and the organizing committee of the symposium.

For students and beginners, there were basic to advanced topics – including Statistical Overview, Data Preparation via SPSS Software, Data Management and Transformation, Sample Size Calculation, Reliability and Validity Test, Correlation and Regression Analysis, General Linear Model and Log Linear Model etc.

For the healthcare professionals, topics such as Introduction to Survey on Patient Safety Tools, AHRQ Survey Tools, Data Collection Methodology, Data Accreditation and Standards, Internal and External Benchmarking Standards, Score Card, Dashboard and Story Board by Using Tableau and Power BI Business Intelligence Software were explored.

On Day 2 of the conference, there were three sessions on aspects of quality, safety and research.  The sessions started at 8.30 am with the theme of Role of Data Analytics in Healthcare Quality Management.  Eminent healthcare quality experts like Mr Arun Govind, Ms Dalia Kozhaya, Mr Thom Dammrich and Dr Thennarasu spoke on topics such as Using Data in Business and Healthcare, Strengthening Data Collection and Use for Healthcare Quality Improvement, Continuous Quality Improvement and Reduce Variability in Healthcare Quality Competencies.

The conference was inaugurated by Dr Girish S Rao, President.  The Chief guest Dr Ravanan R., Director of Collegiate Education and Retd.  Principal, Presidency College, the Guest of Honour, Dr. Jothi Kumar R, Dean of Faculty, Science and Humanities, SRM Institute of Science and Technology and Special Guest Dr P. Venkatesan, Senior Deputy Director (Retd.) conveyed their good wishes for the conference and stressed on the need for a data driven culture.

The 2^nd session was themed on Improving Patient Safety through Visual Analytics and Data Science.  Mr. Johnievic Valdez, Ms. Marwa Noureldein, Dr. Manjusha Dhule and Dr. V V Jaichandran gave insightful talks on the role of artificial intelligence on patient safety, risk management in healthcare, how to visualize, analyze and predict patient waiting time using graphical tools and developing a data driven culture.  The talks were insightful and well received by the participants.

The third and concluding session focussed on use of statistics and software in medical and health research.  Leading ophthalmologists, Dr Rajeev Raman and Dr R R Sudhir spoke on the use of big data analytics in healthcare research and transformation of data into information and knowledge, while  Dr. Mani Bhaskaran lent his know-how as a moderator on one of the sessions.  Dr. Venkatesan P., retired senior scientist from ICMR spoke on survival analysis in public health research.  Dr. Sendaresan Raman gave an interesting talk on transforming healthcare with artificial intelligence and machine learning.  The event ended with a question-and-answer session in which the audience pontificated enthusiastically.

Mr. G. Senthilkumar, Assistant Professor (TSNA) and Organizing Secretary, gave the vote of thanks and summarizing the valuable information shared during the two-day summit.  Around 110 participants attended the conference while more than 75 people joined virtually.