Four Ways Big Data Improves the Medical Sphere

Big Data processing and analysis are penetrating the healthcare industry further and further. Telemedicine, EHR, wearables, and Internet of Things getting more and more popular, the medical sphere is accumulating more and more healthcare records. To make this data useful, practitioners need a convenient access to the information, as well as the ability to easily interpret and interact with it. So, let’s see how the medical specialists use Big Data approaches.

Electronic Health Records

EHR is real-time electronically-stored information about a patient (demographics, allergies, test results, medical history, etc.) in a digital record. The benefit it brings is clear: less paperwork, more control over data, an authorized instant access to it of all the clinicians involved, and automated workflow.

Healthcare Database

Wearables have already conquered the consumer electronics market: they are used by millions of people. IDTechEX expects the wearables market to grow to $40 billion in 2018. The devices can not only track the number of steps a person makes per day but also monitor chronic diseases (Parkinson’s, diabetes, heart diseases) and send the information directly to the medical specialists. In such a way, loads of healthcare information is accumulated and doctors get large healthcare databases that can be used in the treatment process. Big Data helps to manage it. As a bonus: it provides doctors with an opportunity to track epidemics.

Real Time Alerting

The very wearables can send health data of a patient to the cloud where it can be checked by the practitioners. In their turn, doctors can send alerts directly to the patients when their condition is unstable. For instance, Glorium Technologies has realized this function in form of push notifications from the healthcare app when patients have to take their medicine.

Informed Strategic Planning

Big Data analysis provides doctors with more broad systematic information about a lot of patients. In such a way, decisions taken by practitioners have much more background and can lead to better results. Moreover, access to the wearable devices provides a better understanding of what motivates patients and how they behave during the treatment.

Big Data has made predictive analytics, automated documentation, personalized medicine, digital reporting, etc. real for the healthcare industry. Proper treatment becomes possible thanks to it. A great example of Big Data being useful: the pharmaceutical collaboration resulted in the discovery that the antidepressant, Desipramine, can be used for curing of lung cancer.