A patient has arrived at his primary care physician’s office. His symptoms are unusual “ some fit one diagnosis but others do not. Traditionally, that doctor has had to rely on his training and experience, his medical journals, and, occasionally, consultation with colleagues.
Big data has changed all of that. With access to a huge database of global medical information, that doctor can now input all of the symptoms and have spit out to him potential diagnoses, based upon patient histories from everywhere. Not only will he obtain potential diagnoses but, as well, treatments that have proved to be successful.
Big Data Disruption
Big data has disrupted many industries. It has drastically altered the way in which financial services, insurance, and even investment enterprises do business. But a key industry that is less discussed, one in which big data has made a huge impact, has been health care.
Exactly What is Big Data?
We now have the technology to gather huge amounts of information from multiple sources. That gathering is useless, however, unless that information can be categorized and synthesized so that it makes sense to users. Fortunately, we have the technology to do that too.
So, in the healthcare industry, for example, we can gather huge amounts of data on new medical procedures, methods of early diagnosis, predicting potential health issues and epidemics, and treatments, and more. We then need to sort that data and analyze it to make medical decisions for individual patients.
Big Data for Prevention and Early Treatment
Two key areas in which big data is used to improve healthcare prevention and/or early treatment. By studying a patient’s physical and health history, including genetics, for example, we can now compare history, behaviors, and symptoms with data that has been gathered from all over the globe and predict risk factors for disease. Measures can then be taken to prevent that patient from developing a potential disease.
Big Data for Clinical Trials
There are clinical trials the world over, usually the result of collaboration between medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies. All of the data from these trials can now be gathered, analyzed and accessed by doctors anywhere. This allows medical professionals instant access to the results of trials and efficacy of new medications.
Big Data and Epidemics Prevention
Tracking of mobile phones allows tracking of population movements and predict the spread of disease. This was a data strategy used in the recent Ebola outbreak in Africa, and to assist in its containment.
Natural disasters, such as the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, can be a healthcare nightmare. But with big data tracking of mobile phones, it was easier to determine where to set up emergency treatment centers and plan other disaster relief efforts.
So important has the prospect of using big data become, that it is now the subject of a great deal of research and dissertation writing in medical schools all over the world. New uses are continually being proposed and tested.
Centralization of Data Brings Risks
When patient data is centralized, so that medical professionals can share and make predictions, as well as discover types of treatments that have proved successful, personal and medical information of patients is at risk for a breach. Cybercrime in this industry has been on the rise and will continue to be, as electronic health records become more and more common. And as the movement toward national databases increases so does the potential that the health and even financial records of individuals can be stolen. There is a need for some type of international organization that will establish and regulate security so that all storers of personal medical information adhere to the same regulations.
Increasing Patient Engagement in Their Own Health Care
In recent years, the focus on fitness has caused individuals to purchase such IoT technology as Fitbits. These allow tracking of everything from the number of steps taken in a day, to heart rate, blood pressure, even glucose levels. Not only is such information helpful to individuals, but it can be transmitted to their healthcare providers at regular intervals, without that doctor and patient having to meet face-to-face. This use of data saves both time and money.
Big Data as a Predictor
Big data is not lonely being used to predict potential health issues of individual patients based on their genetics and health/lifestyle histories, medical providers are using it to predict their own needs as providers.
Consider the staffing in a hospital. How do administrators determine how much staff will be needed on a given shift at different days of the week, or even seasons? If they staff up too much, they lose money; if they staff up too little, patient care suffers, and some results could be disastrous.
This issue was solved successfully by a group of hospitals in Paris, using big data. Using data analysis of the histories of patient admissions and types of health problems, they have been able to come up with patterns in admissions rates. The result? More appropriate staffing and better patient care “ a win-win.
The Big Bonuses of Big Data
As the technology of big data and analysis continues to evolve, both providers and patients are going to realize huge benefits.
- Patients will have more involvement in their own healthcare and faster access to their providers, without the need for office visits
- Providers will have the ability to diagnose and treat more accurately
- Providers can use predictive analysis to forecast risk for diseases, for staffing needs, and even the potential outbreaks of epidemics
- Patients and providers both will see costs of health care decline, as health care functions are streamlined.
Big data is here to stay. Other than security issues, there is simply no downside to its use to improve medical care globally.
