ODH, Inc. announced its formation as a new healthcare analytics solutions provider, aimed at transforming behavioral health through advanced technology by enhancing quality of mental health treatment and patient care, while reducing unnecessary medical costs.

“With our expertise and technology, we can analyze information and provide new solutions for patients, healthcare professionals and payers by addressing problems related to continuity of treatment and issues regarding the overall mental healthcare system.”

People with serious mental illnesses often require complex treatment plans, and some are hospitalized repeatedly. In addition, patients with serious mental illness frequently have co-existing medical conditions — including heart disease, trauma, cancer and pulmonary conditions. While patients with complex medical conditions comprise about five percent of the U.S. population, they are estimated to represent nearly 50 percent of overall medical expenditures, according to a report by The NIHCM Foundation.

This issue of disproportionate medical expenditure on a small segment of the population has led to increased focus on analyzing subpopulations with the greatest care needs and medical costs. Particularly in the area of mental health, there has been difficulty integrating information from disparate data systems, resulting in incomplete patient history and suboptimal coordination of medical and mental health benefits. Moreover, mental health predictive modeling tools and health care provider comparison tools are not widely available — especially for complex care patients with serious mental illness.

“Many patients with mental illnesses are not receiving adequate treatment, which may lead to increased social burdens including higher medical costs,” said Michael Jarjour, newly appointed president and CEO of ODH. “With our expertise and technology, we can analyze information and provide new solutions for patients, healthcare professionals and payers by addressing problems related to continuity of treatment and issues regarding the overall mental healthcare system.”

The company’s first offering will stem from a collaboration with IBM, leveraging IBM’s deep data analytics expertise.