Big Data & Healthcare: A Relationship Saving Lives
Big data has changed the way industries are operating now. With the exponential growth of the healthcare industry, it is observed that the data associated with this industry is growing as well. Due to the huge demand of patients for care management, the healthcare industry has started to realize the importance of advanced technologies that can bring major changes for good. Big data analytics is one such major change that has been brought about.
What is Big Data in Healthcare?
Big data in healthcare refers to the extremely large sets of healthcare data amassed from a wide variety of sources. The data is collected from a wide variety of sources including electronic health records, pharmaceutical research, genomic sequencing, medical devices etc. These data help healthcare professionals to make informed medical and financial decisions. Therefore, by using big data analytics, one can increase efficiency, decrease costs, define best practices and many other benefits.
How it is revolutionizing the Healthcare Industry
1.Better Patient Tracking - Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) solutions are used to monitor patients outside of typical clinical settings. It is crucial to collect, verify and organize the data of these systems as they help to reduce hospital readmissions and improve home care. The data collected can be used for research and development purposes in the future.
2.Improved Diagnosis & Faster Treatment - It is a challenge to identify diseases on time. However, with the help of tools offered by big data technology such as predictive analytics, we can detect diseases at an early stage. Data-driven medical and pharmacological research is leading the discovery of new treatments and medicine for faster cure development. As such, big data is essential in uncovering key correlations between large amounts of data patterns. With the aid of machine learning, we are also able to study the genome and implement the correct treatment for both genetically and non-genetically derived illnesses.
3.Reduced Fraud - Due to the sheer amount of patient data it has access to, the healthcare industry is most vulnerable to security breaches. With the help of data management tools, organizations can easily identify security threats and errors such as changes in network traffic and cyber-security attacks. Next, the decrease in cost of healthcare. Thanks to proper data tracking and management, healthcare organizations can save a huge amount as expensive and wasteful errors are avoided.
4.Efficient Access To Electronic Health Records - Big data not only reduces the amount of paperwork and replication, but it is also able to keep track of a huge amount of medical records of millions of people with ease. Hospital visits and lab tests are also decreased due to interdepartmental patient alignment. Automated warnings and reminders for both patients and doctors of key information such as prescription tracking help doctors in making informed choices and patients in tracking care of their health.
