The last decade has seen great advances in the amount of data being generated and collected on just about everything, including the human ability to understand, analyze, and use technology. These trends together have resulted in the rise of the field of ‘big data’.
Since its creation, this has conquered the world as a true revolution, affecting all sectorsfrom healthcare to marketing, in countless different ways, improving productivity and contributing to process efficiencies.
Precisely in the health sector and the medicine In general, this is where this article focuses. At first glance, it may seem like the worlds of ‘big data’ and healthcare have nothing in common, but Nothing is further from reality.
One of the large sectors where big data really has a special contribution is health, even saving lives. The reality is that as the amount of data in this sector increases considerably, a digitized system is increasingly necessary.
To this we must add that medical information is especially complex and relevant, so the better documented it is and the more investment is made in this aspect, one can really speak of an improvement in the quality of life.
Benefits of ‘big data’ in the health sector: this is how it improves people’s quality of life
1. Health Tracking
Big data’ and the Internet are two of the things that are revolutionizing the health industry the most. Today, there are various devices for recording sleep, heart rate, distance traveled, exercise, etc. along with these datathere are also others to control blood pressure, blood sugar level, blood oxygen and many more.
Data received from sensors and continuous monitoring of the body’s vital signs can help identify important patterns through which the health of a patient can be known and, therefore, the potential risk for the present or even future. This will translate into an increase in life expectancy and better control of chronic diseases and infectious diseases.
2. Predictive analytics
Developed economies like Europe could save more than $149 billion by improving operational efficiency through ‘analytics’big data‘, Mckinsey explains.
For example, analyzing the patient admission rate with the help of past data can help increase or decrease the number of beds. In this way, hospitals can serve more patients with the same capacity.
Hospital staff can also be referred effectively through demand forecasting. The same goes for predicting a patient’s chance of a heart attack or helping predict the cost a patient will incur during a treatment. In the same way, hospitals can forecast demand for their medical supplies to avoid stock-outs.
3. Personalized care (for high-risk patients)
Predictive analytics can help save more than 25% of annual cost for healthcare institutions. Through predictive analytics, you can identify patients who frequently visit the hospital, as well as classify these patients based on their health status.
4. Prevention of human errors
Doctors are not gods and they can make mistakes too. Therefore, to reduce human error, EHRs (Electronic Medical Records) can be useful. The records of health Digital devices can provide a lot of information about a patient’s medical history.
By analyzing past prescriptions and their effectiveness, the analyzes can monitor the incorrect prescription and alert the patient immediately.
5. More effective diagnostic and therapeutic techniques
Medical reports and prescriptions from doctors generate a large amount of data on a daily basis. Thanks to ‘big data’, previous data can be analyzed to verify the effectiveness of the treatment process and medications, eliminated those that are ineffective in achieving the desired results.
6. Patient similarity
Patient similarity algorithms help identify patients with similar characteristics based on their past health records.
Through this, doctors can more accurately predict the treatment strategy for a particular disease. For example, identify which treatment strategy will work best for which groups of people.
7. Telemedicine
A recent report from The Business Research Company shows that the global technology market of telemedicine, currently worth $131 billion, it is expected to reach nearly 300 billion by 2027.
These days, the world is facing a severe shortage of medical personnel. In India, the situation is worse compared to the WHO recommendations. The WHO recommends that there should be 1 doctor for every 1,000 inhabitants, but in India there is 1 doctor for every 10,000 inhabitants.
This novelty in medicine will allow a standardization in the provision of medical care, both within countries and on all continents. In addition to remote access, telemedicine also allows doctors to consult with each other and communicate with specialists regardless of geographic location.
With all this and as the technology strengthens its position on the health sector, the types of sources and volumes of data that are available for research and analysis have begun to grow at the same rate.
Big data solutions seek to leverage this massive and complex data to gain more focused insights and insights into the world of healthcare.. It tries to make more sense of this information overload and provide improvements in the quality of life for everyone.
