VIDEO | Data4Good - Reduced Inequalities Award Winner: Elevance Health

(US and Canada) CDO Magazine congratulates Elevance Health for winning the inaugural 2022 Data4Good Award in the Reduced Inequalities category. In a video interview, Ashok Chennuru, Elevance Health Chief Data and Insights Officer, speaks with Ben Blanquera, VP-Evangelist, Senior Architect at Rackspace, about leveraging data for the general good, future plans, the need for data governance, and the executive leadership role.

According to Chennuru, the company's passion is leveraging data, and services like pharmacy, behavioral health, complex and chronic care, and digital platforms are among its offerings.

He explains that factors such as social drivers play a crucial role in addressing more than medical needs, understanding the problems better, and offering more holistically personalized health care. Chennuru adds that the focus is on improving health equity to ensure individuals have fair and just opportunities to be healthy.

Chennuru continues by describing Elevance Health subsidiary Carelon's analytic and insight tools, which combine social drivers of health with data sets like clinical, claims, and behavioral health data.

In the future, he explains, the company plans to make this information available to consumers using digital-first tools and provide it to care providers so that they can take a whole-person approach to care.

According to Chennuru, Elements Health's leadership recognizes the importance of proper data governance and data stewardship and has established Edge, an enterprise data governance executive program. Executives and stakeholders across the enterprise oversee data acquisition, management, use, and security.

Sharing his opinion on good governance, Chennuru says that organizations must comply with regulations and use data appropriately. He notes that people may be more comfortable sharing data if they know it is not being misused.

Concluding, Chennuru states that the organization is fueled by the bold purpose of improving humanity’s health. He notes that the organization has tons of data, and the goal is to leverage it to provide proactive, personalized, and predictive care.

CDO Magazine appreciates Ashok Chennuru for sharing his insights and data success stories from Elevance Health with our global community.