How is big data transforming healthcare?
Author: Alan Goodloe
As the number of personal medical devices continues to expand what patients can safely and accurately measure about their individual health, the amount of data points healthcare providers have on their patients is exponentially growing. Fortunately, big data has paved the way for healthcare organizations to not only implement cost effective methods of collecting their patients’ data, but advancements in analytical tools and software has enabled unprecedented opportunities to use that data that is changing the lives of people around the world.
What is big data?
While the meaning of big data has evolved over time, it can vary depending on the capabilities of the people using it. In its simplest form, big data refers to processing large data sets that cannot be handled efficiently by traditional data-processing software. In its most valued form, big data is the science of systematically managing and analyzing large data sets to extract insights that drive value back to the organization.
Industry experts have widely adopted 5 Vs to describe big data characteristics:
- Volume is the amount or quantity of data.
- Value is the data’s Return on Investment and demonstrates how the data is being used to make it valuable.
- Variety is the different forms or types of data and their sources. Unstructured, semi-structured or structured data can include everything from numbers, facts and statistics to text, photos, and videos.
- Velocity is the speed at which organizations collect and store their data. The velocity of data directly impacts organizations and their ability to make timely and accurate business decisions.
Veracity is the truth or accuracy of data. With data coming in different forms from different sources, the quality and accuracy of it must be controlled to draw reliable conclusions from it.
Big Data for Healthcare
Big data for healthcare is allowing medical organizations to process and analyze massive amounts of health-related information to extract a more comprehensive understanding of a patient, organization, or community more efficiently. Data from medical instrumentation, machinery, diagnostic devices, and even online services are being transferred throughout the healthcare network with big data tools. Mathematical and statistical methods are converging with big data analytic tools to enable the identification of patterns and relationships that will allow medical professionals to predict future patient issues more accurately. This will ultimately lead to individualized medical care plans that will enable a 360-degree approach to a patient’s well-being and preventive healthcare plan.
One of the most recent examples of how big data has transformed healthcare is the impact it had on the global coronavirus crisis. Big data enabled researchers to quickly share vaccine data with each other that ultimately supported the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines. Big data was also used to predict the spread of COVID-19 by allowing healthcare information to be processed at a much higher velocity (faster) than in the past during other pandemics. Big data in healthcare offers numerous benefits to patient and medical providers. Use cases for improving patient outcomes, speeding up the development of medical products, analyzing population growth to predict problem areas to plan medical services, and forecast models to predict admission trends to more efficiently allocate staffing are just a few examples of how big data is positively transforming the healthcare industry.
