How a novel partnership, to support rural healthcare teams, changed how we define what it means to be a practicing statistician

Rural healthcare teams face many challenges and resource constraints which have been exacerbated during the global pandemic. Often without the technical expertise required to meet mandatory reporting requirements defined by multiple stakeholders, providers become too overwhelmed to focus their time on patient care. At the same time, the healthcare industry is moving away from a fee‐for‐service business model to a value‐based contract model, requiring provider organizations to enhance their reporting capabilities and optimize workflows. The novel partnership developed between a payer and a non‐profit allowed for a repeatable framework to be established to deploy technical resources and solve problems. Statisticians and data scientists are at the core intersection of the tools for connecting healthcare organizations with their data, and the processes allowing providers to use data and tools effectively and efficiently. It is also critical to identify the right statistical consultants since flexibility and empathy are required for this work. Through this pilot project, there has been meaningful success across quality measure reporting, patient outcomes, provider engagement, behavioural health and cancer screening and automation of solutions. Teams work together across disciplines to design sustainable solutions to a wide range of problems, all in service to the quadruple aim.