In Response to COVID-19, UnityPoint Health Goes All-In on Data Analytics

One of the more important early lessons learned from the pandemic has been the significant role that data and science plays, particularly in the context of medical professionals and public health leaders sharing critical information for the benefit of proactively identifying surges and ultimately improving patient care.

At the Des Moines, Iowa-based UnityPoint Health, a team of data scientists—hired years ago—was able to quickly react and use data analytics to help the health system measure and predict key COVID-19 trends. For instance, UnityPoint’s analytics team, spearheaded by data scientist Ben Cleveland, created a dashboard that allowed health system leaders to manipulate variables to predict the impact their decisions would have throughout the organization.