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Rick VanNess

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Rick VanNess, Director, Product Development, is leading Rhodes Group’s analytics team focused on positioning the medical laboratory for a more prominent role in value-based care.  Clinical Analytics, its first commercialized product, uses advanced and patent pending algorithms to risk stratify populations and produce real-time actionable information to help customers improve outcomes and lower the cost of care.  This first product has helped clients exceed assigned quality measures, produce better outcomes, and determine value-based collaborations. 

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Outside of his work for Rhodes, Rick is President of the New Mexico Biotechnology and Bioscience Organization a trade organization with a mission to foster and grow the biotech industry in New Mexico.  Additionally, Rick serves as a Scientific Reviewer for the University New Mexico’s Main Institutional Review Board assuring studies involving human subjects are performed appropriately. 

Specialties

  • Assisting health systems in organizing their information and identifying new value

  • Value-based care strategy development and implementation

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Education

  • Master of Science, Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of New Mexico

  • Bachelor of Science, Environmental and Occupational Health, University of New Mexico

 

Awards

  • Abbot UNIVANTS Healthcare Excellence Award (2019)

  • Top 40 Individuals under the Age of 40 in New Mexico (2017)

Leveraging Longitudinal Clinical Laboratory Results to Improve Prenatal Care

American Journal of Managed Care, 01.28.2021

As health care moves to value-based arrangements, clinical laboratories are in a position to support the care coordination activities of managed care organizations (MCOs) with real-time, longitudinal, laboratory-derived insights. Health conditions, such as pregnancy, are ideal for collaboration due to:

  • need for timely information not available through claims,

  • increased reliance on laboratory testing for treatment decisions, and

  • high costs and morbidity associated with preterm birth.

This article summarizes the first published work describing collaboration between an MCO and a clinical laboratory to develop and implement improved prenatal care management processes and outcomes.

 

Opportunity for Real-Time, Longitudinal Clinical Laboratory Data to Enhance Diabetes Disease Surveillance: A cross-sectional laboratory database-enabled population study

Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine, 08.28.2020

With the gradual yearly decrease of reimbursement for laboratory services due to the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA), it has become imperative for clinical laboratories to diversify and find novel methods that highlight their value. This study supports the value proposition of using laboratory data for diabetes surveillance, as well as a tool for future population health interventions. Using clinical laboratory data is an inexpensive method that can be automated and provide real-time longitudinal insights. Therefore, this method can be a timely way to stratify patients at risk, observe diabetes patterns, and aid public health officials to build more focused targeted interventions.

 

Beyond Test Results: Defining the Role of Clinical Laboratories in Value-Based Population Health Equity

AACC.org Clinical Laboratory News, 03.01.2020

Clinical laboratories figure prominently in the continuum of care by delivering timely and accurate results to clinicians. As the U.S. healthcare system evolves into a value-based care model, laboratories are moving from transactional interactions to approaches that support integrated services and proactive population health. This means they are actively evaluating the strength of their data and capitalizing on their domain knowledge to develop actionable insights from longitudinal trends within the data.

The Value of Laboratory Information Augmenting a Managed Care Organization’s Comprehensive Diabetes Care Efforts in New Mexico

Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine, 09.11.2020

Clinical laboratories play a critical role in healthcare, and this article demonstrates an approach for laboratories to collaborate with MCOs in their care management efforts. In addition, we calculate the value of this novel collaboration, which may plan an integral role in laboratories' pursuit of value-based care.

Improving the Delivery of Healthcare Through Clinical Diagnostic Insights:
A valuation of laboratory medicine through "Clinical Lab 2.0."

Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine, 10.23.2019

Laboratory medicine is able to provide meaningful clinical diagnostic insights for population health initiatives that result in improved short- and long-term patient outcomes and drive cost-effective care. Opportunities include data analysis with longitudinal laboratory data, identification of patient-specific targeted interventions, and development of clinical decision support tools. Laboratories will need to leverage the skills and knowledge of their multidisciplinary staff, along with their extensive patient data sets, through innovative analytics to meet these objectives.

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