Andy French, InfoCentral Health Analytics Community Leader

Stepping into the Spotlight

Andy French is a data management professional assisting organizations to use their data assets to power analytics and drive business-impact. He serves as the co-chair of the Health Analytics community, a space connecting providers, implementers and vendors working on solutions to enable analytics to share experiences in leveraging data for advanced analytics, both technically and from a business view across jurisdictions. In the past few years, Andy has been focusing his interests in modern data platforms, cloud and advanced analytics. 

Infoway connected with Andy about his role in the Health Analytics community and hear his thoughts on how data-driven decisions may improve health care efficiency.

Why do you believe in digital health?

I think the primary drivers behind digitization in any industry is really about convenience and simplicity of the experience; hence why we see so many other industries heading that way, or are already there. In Canada, our unique health system model in many ways holds back the innovations that would allow for that. We are far behind achieving an optimal patient experience. However, each generation accepts less inefficiency and questions more the legacy of the past. It may be a generational issue, but it’s human nature. We’ll get there.

Why should people care about the Health Analytics community?

The nature of health care delivery is arguably one of the hardest industries to ‘digitize’. Health care is already ‘data-driven’ but in a very analog way. With layers upon layers of legacy processes and behaviors, real change can be difficult to achieve. When change does happen it tends to go in waves, and a strong community is needed to drive that.

How do members of the Health Analytics community contribute to digital health innovation in Canada?

With the exponential leaps that have been made in compute and storage, the data management industry is exploding. Contributing your knowledge and lived experiences is the only way keep up.

What are the goals for the Health Analytics Community?

Along with my co-leads, we want to leverage the experience of the community to produce events and resources that will help our members to improve health care through advanced analytics. We want to hear from everyone.

Can you share a fun fact about you?

I decided that it would be more cost effective to roast my own coffee beans. So after much trial and error and investment in new equipment – I do just that. However the pay down period was a lot longer than I thought! But on the positive side, I have freshly roasted coffee every week.

Connect with Andy French on InfoCentral or LinkedIn.