In order to be considered, companies had to be a member of the Kelley Institute for Business Analytics Advisory Board and submit a proposal that detailed how they used analytics to further their businesses.
Vijay Khatri, associate professor of the Kelley Institute for Business Analytics, said the award was created to celebrate and recognize the effect of analytics in the corporate world.
“There is a lot of innovation in analytics that exists in our advisory board members, and so we wanted to recognize that innovation in analytics that is happening amongst them,” Khatri said.
An evaluation committee of industry leaders reviewed these applications for the business issues they addressed, the analytical approach they used and their work’s influence on business. After reviewing all submissions, the committee selected Humana Inc. as the 2015 recipient of the Analytics Leadership Award for its predictive model of senior falls.
Vipin Gopal, enterprise vice president of clinical analytics at Humana, and his team said they created the model due to the overwhelming number of seniors who suffer from this issue. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, one senior in the United States dies every 20 minutes from a fall.
“At Humana, being one of the largest Medicare providers in the country, we provide Medicare advantage benefits to a large number of seniors and we work with seniors on a daily basis, so we said this is a public health topic that should be addressed,” Gopal said.
Because the model worked to solve both this health issue as well as Humana’s business needs, Khatri said he believed Humana won the award for its multiple applications.
“When it came down to Humana’s project, you can save a whole lot of money from a healthcare perspective, but you can also improve the life of an individual who is likely to fall down,” Khatri said.
But more than helping Humana as a business, Gopal said he was proud of the model for its work in improving the lives of Humana’s clients.
“More than anything else we feel that it’s a great honor to be recognized for solving a problem that’s of importance to the seniors of this country,” Gopal said. “It’s a great recognition of that, and it’s also recognition of the fact that analytics, as an area, is an important field in health care and helps us solve important problems moving into the future.”
This marriage of analytics and business is exactly what Khatri said he and his colleagues hope to emulate in the business school.
“There are a lot of companies using scientific rigor in actually solving business problems, and we really want to recognize the business impact of analytics,” Khatri said. “Essentially, that’s what we teach in the Kelley School of Business as well. It’s not just about applying techniques, but it’s also following through with the techniques to see how they make business impact.”
