NQF: You used data to transform an entrenched industry. We’re trying to do that too. How can data help?

BB: When we first started, we were dealing with a 150-year-old business that essentially had the original business metric, which is baseball statistics. People who ran baseball teams were people who played, like myself, or people whose families came up through the business. But you had some really bright baseball academics who were saying for years there is a more efficient, rational way to run a baseball team through the use of statistics. We took this data and turned creating a baseball team into a mathematical equation—one that was based only on objective information and ignored the subjective, which was essentially how decisions used to be made in our business.

NQF: Baseball’s number crunchers now routinely use statistics to put better teams on the field for less money. Our healthcare system needs a similar revolution. What are the lessons you can share with us about how to get that done?

BB: We had massive amounts of data when we started collecting it in the mid-90s, and it was up to me, as the leader of this organization, to find people smart enough to sift through it. We had to sift through what was noise and ultimately what was of benefit to us when it came to predicting how a player would perform the next year. The most important thing we did was bring brilliant people into the business who had no experience with the game. I wanted people who looked at my business as if it were the first time they’ve seen it. I wanted no preconceived notions. I wanted them to take the emotion and experience out of how people came to conclusions.

NQF: How do you know when you have the right data: the data that you need to make transformational change?

BB: All of the challenges we had in baseball are not dissimilar to the ones healthcare has and many businesses have. You’re not always going to be right but you are creating a process, a system, and using data allows you to do that. The great thing about having data is that it allows you to examine why you were possibly wrong and make corrections to try to get better. If it’s subjective, it’s all based on serendipity—you’re guessing every time.