Organizational leaders must work together to find better ways to use data to overcome the most pressing issues that affect public health outcomes. Big data technology is revolutionizing the medical field. However, with progress comes challenges.
Nearly 25% of all American consumers will own a wearable health device by the year 2020, according to a survey conducted by IDTechEx, and according to an IBM Watson study, the average person will generate over a million gigabytes of health-related data during their life.
As the healthcare environment grows more complex and consumers generate more data, organizations have found it increasingly difficult to secure and share vital patient information.
Barriers to Information Sharing Is an Ongoing Issue
Most organizations have implemented patient electronic health records (EHRs). However, only a small percentage of them has managed to find ways to share information easily. This inability to share information has resulted in disjointed patient experiences as well as inefficient payments to care providers.
So far, the biggest hurdle to the digital interoperability of information is that healthcare decision-makers have yet to come to a consensus on data sharing standards. However, many medical professionals are leaning toward Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards as a framework for medical record information sharing.
FHIR is an internet-based approach to sharing data across EHR systems. If the standard becomes widely accepted, it will eliminate the need for patients to fill out redundant paperwork for various healthcare providers. Instead, care providers will access a comprehensive, consolidated medical history of patients to access information such as test results, hospitalization records and prescriptions easily.
The FHIR standard is an essential initial step in national digital interoperability for United States medical records. It’s helping care providers reduce technology barriers by prescribing an improved way to manage data.
Leveraging Data to Reimagine the Workforce
The continuum of health services is a complex and dynamic ecosystem. Furthermore, the volume and velocity of data generated by healthcare stakeholders are expanding continually.
Resultantly, the professional needs of healthcare workers are also expanding, as medical personnel learn to adapt to the new digital landscape. Accordingly, institutional leaders must upskill employees to prepare them for the future of caregiving.
The process of upskilling employees begins with assessing their current abilities. With this information, decision-makers can develop a workforce development strategy. Healthcare executives must also evaluate how technology will impact the medical field over the next decade and a half.
In the future, researchers will develop many more remarkable medical technologies. As these innovations emerge, medical professionals will have to learn how to work with new tools and resources. Healthcare stakeholders can look forward to innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence, genomics, predictive analytics and telemedicine.
In the future, necessary changes in the skill sets of medical personnel will shape school curriculums as well as in-house career development initiatives. It’s worth noting that these changes will benefit emerging economies the most in the coming years.
The Changing Tide in Healthcare
The healthcare field has lagged behind other industries in the deployment of innovations such as big data analysis. This slow adoption rate occurred, in part, due to concerns about the privacy and security of digital patient records as well as the challenges and costs related to connecting disparate data sources. Meanwhile, 80% of executives report success with big data technology, in sectors such as:
- Entertainment
- Finance
- Insurance
- Logistics
- Manufacturing
- Media
Furthermore, 20% of executives expressed that big data technology has revolutionized their verticals entirely.
Forces are emerging in the healthcare field that compel executive decision-makers to embrace innovations. However, healthcare executives must overcome many ethical issues while, at the same time, learning how to work with new technologies.
For example, today’s healthcare leaders must adjust to reimbursement standards that have evolved from measuring success in volume to rewarding caregivers for value. The care providers who treat the most patients no longer reap the most rewards. Today, quality healthcare is about prevention and self-care that could help patients from getting sick in the first place as well as improving the effectiveness of treatments.
To meet this goal, healthcare organizations must learn to leverage data technology for evidence-based decision-making. As health organizations improve their ability to work with big data technology, they will become increasingly efficient and learn new ways to deliver improved community health outcomes.
The benefits of technology are too great for healthcare decision-makers to overlook. Healthcare executives must learn to navigate the barriers to the deployment of new technology to reap the vast rewards of innovation.
Unfortunately, there’s no textbook strategy for deploying innovations across the healthcare vertical. However, working to promote technology in the field will pay off. Even without the financial rewards, the enhanced ability to deliver high-quality service at an affordable cost and save lives is priceless.
