As we’ve discussed in previous posts, segmentation is a vital tool for dissecting data and understanding patient needs. Today, ACG System users can utilize various grouping categories, from pharmacy use and disease type to frailty markers and other clinical indicators, to accomplish segmentation analyses. In 2022, we are introducing a new, truly unique segmentation model focused on actionable patient cohorts, called Patient Need Groups (PNGs).

The ACG System’s PNG segmentation feature will allow System users to access a state-of-the-art patient classification to understand a population’s health needs, develop clinical programming specific to different patient types, understand utilization patterns, and most importantly, take action to improve service use and costs. PNGs assign individual patients into mutually exclusive, hierarchical groups based on their overall health needs.

PNGs allow ACG System users to stay a step ahead of their population’s needs with an advanced view of segment-level performance and trends, improving resource allocation by directing efforts towards patients most likely to benefit.  While other population health groupings identify patients by disease state, care episode or utilization incident, the ACG System has always been focused on a whole-patient approach to care. Patients, particularly those with complex health needs, cannot be defined simply in terms of their disease states (‘a diabetic’) or incident (‘a readmission’) outside the context of the whole person. This fundamental principal underlies the ACG System’s longstanding and well-validated approach to measuring multimorbidity. Our newly developed PNG segmentation takes our multimorbidity approach to the next level by assigning clinically-relevant categories that are easy to understand and apply in a clinical setting.

The PNG segmentation framework can be used alone or alongside other ACG System variables to help users better understand trends in their populations, identify areas for improvement, develop focused interventions and track metrics.

PNGs will be available in the next version of the ACG System, available in 2022. To learn more, contact our team at acginfo@jh.edu, and stay tuned for future posts!