How Big Data is Transforming the Healthcare Sector

The term ‘Big Data’ is being used by marketers for learning about the preferences of the shoppers. It helps in knowing the potential risks of security organizations, and enables the demographers to identify major trends. But the use of big data has got much more significance in the health-care segment as compared to others.

Since, a great number of incentives are designed for improving health-care and reducing related costs, health-care institutions have become more conscious in terms of data. Although, there is a great buzz these days regarding harnessing Big Data to solve business intelligence challenges, health-care organizations need to adopt a different approach to tackle their data issues.

The size, scope and category of data are evolving in a rapid manner just like the data compiling and storing tools. In case of a health-care organization, it is imperative to become proficient in terms of data compilation and usage for enhancing patient care, driving innovation and improving overall organizational performance. If you are capable of using bigger, faster and more disparate data, you are likely to have a competitive advantage in the market.

Here are 6 steps that can help health-care organizations identify competitive advantages and achieve better command and control over their data.

Governance of Data

Prior to starting a new large-scale data initiative, you should formulate a clear data governance strategy that explains how you will collect, maintain and protect data assets. If you are into healthcare sector, then your data governance should include policies that ensure prevention of unauthorized access to protected health information.

Acquisition of Data

Conventional data storage contains highly structured data acquired from traditional in-house sources. Now, you have the option of acquiring unstructured and semi-structured data from different sources. For instance, you can monitor and analyze data from social media for ensuring more patient satisfaction.

Sharing of Data

If you have a large data warehouse, you may feel that you require more data than your actual requirement. However, if you want to maximize the value of your data, you need to collaborate and develop relationships to share data with the data-providers as well as with plant and life sciences communities. Exchange of health information with other data-providers will help in improving the continuity of care.

Standardization of Data

It seems that despite having certain standards, interoperability exists in a very lesser degree. You should carefully select and adhere to common-data models so that you can combine and compare data easily whenever there is a requirement. It can help you offer value addition especially in medical research activities.

Integration of Data

Integration of data implies merging of data that are extracted from internal and external sources. These data are merged into a single patient-oriented data structure optimized for analysis. For example, you can combine physician’s electronic medical data with in-patient and administrative claims records for future analysis.

Use of Analytics

Once you are done with above steps, you can apply analytics tools to fathom the performance of your organization. With the usage of new analytics tools such as 3D graphing and visualization, interactive interfaces and animation, you can go beyond standard reporting and business intelligence. These tools will provide you with a valuable insight into the clinical and financial performance of your health-care institute.