How The Healthcare Industry Can Unlock Its Potential With Big Data!

The reason why big data analytics is the ideal fit for the healthcare industry is because of the never before seen insights that it provides.

A host of disparate sources have inundated the healthcare industry with tons of data. A few of these sources are as below:

• Total population data
• Statistics on health
• Electronic health records
• Claims of insurance
• Trends in patient visits
• Data on the pharmaceutical side

The improvement of the quality, delivery and efficiency of healthcare services is the end goal.

This can be done by sorting and analyzing the above mentioned data in order to gain valuable and quantitative information.

• In the case of healthcare providers: This could amount to identifying people, a group of people or populations that are most at risk for a particular disease or condition. They can also use evidence-based medicine with the aim of arriving at an accurate diagnosis.
• In the case of healthcare insurers: The avenues are aplenty, they can streamline their processes, fraud and theft prevention can be done, better insurance coverage plan can be devised for their holders.
• Patients and the general population are the most affected because of access to health data analytics. This is because of the increased precision treatment, reduction in healthcare costs and superior quality care.

The healthcare industry greatly benefits from the perfect usage of big data analytics. Here are 5 ways as to how big data services are transforming the healthcare industry:

Electronic Health Records Analysis:

Assimilating large amounts of data in the form of EHRs with the use of big data technologies helps in medical research and improves patient outcomes.

In reality, EHR analytics have proven that links exist between diseases that were considered to be entirely different.

Patient costs can be reduced as physicians will have secure access to data from previous records and will not require another battery of tests on the patient.

Determining Trends in Patient Care

Analysis of standard care practices data also reveals a lot of enlightening information.

This will result in enhanced treatment and safety. There was a case of a hospital in Nevada which analyzed trends in pot-op antibiotics as per their doctor’s prescription and reduced post-op staph infection in their hospital.

Reduce hospital readmissions that are preventable

The case of frequent readmissions can be curbed with big data analytics. This is a major factor in increase of healthcare costs.

With the help of big data services, healthcare providers are now able to flag patients who are at a higher risk of readmission.

This allows the healthcare providers to give them better treatment and ensure readmission does not happen.

Preventing Medical Fraud

The application of big data in healthcare results in some major financial benefits as well. This happens in the form of fraud prevention.

Hundreds of billions of dollars have been claimed fraudulently. This can now be reduced with big data analytics coming into play.

Predictive models and identity elements can be developed based on various relevant elements and this will allow underwriters to validate if a claim is legitimate or not at an early stage of the process.

Implementing ‘Precision Medicine’

The availability of big data has allowed the rise of precision medicines. This is also known as personalized medicine.

What this encompasses is customized treatments, predicting illnesses and medicine prescription based on an individual’s genetic make-up.

This barely scratches the surface of how big an impact big data can have on the healthcare industry.

This article demonstrates the evidence as to how big data is making waves in the healthcare industry!

Why the healthcare industry needs to invest in big data!

It is pretty clear that big data has touched upon all fields within the healthcare industry.

The final step in this is for health insurers and care providers to analyze and evaluate their own analytics capabilities.

If a healthcare organization wants to stay relevant in the industry, these measures need to be taken. Big data analytics has opened a plethora of opportunities for the healthcare industry.

Organizations are also looking into behavioral analytics. This will give them much needed insights into risks, behavioral patterns of members and possible actions.

In the healthcare space, big data can only grow bigger and bigger. Harnessing its potential will play a massive role in betterment of patient care, reduction of costs and cutting losses.