Big Data in Healthcare - Hype or Reality

The Big Data Questions

Big data is generating a lot of hype in every industry including healthcare. People are looking for answers to questions like:

    When will I need big data?
    What should I do to prepare for big data?
    What’s the best way to use big data?
    What is Health Catalyst doing with big data?

It’s important to separate the reality from the hype and clearly describe the place of big data in healthcare today, along with the role it will play in the future.

Big Data in Healthcare Today



A number of use cases in healthcare are well suited for a big data solution.
Some academic- or research-focused healthcare institutions are either experimenting with big data or using it in advanced research projects.
This presentation will examine what’s being done to simplify big data and make it more accessible.

A Brief History of Big Data in Healthcare

In 2001, Doug Laney, now at Gartner, coined the term “the 3 V’s” to define big data:

• Volume
• Velocity
• Variety

Other analysts argued that this is too simplistic but for this purpose let’s start here.









EMRs alone collect huge amounts of data, but according to Brent James of Intermountain Healthcare most of the data is for recreational purposes.
Our work with health systems shows that only a small fraction of the tables in an EMR database (perhaps 400 to 600 tables out of 1000s) are relevant to the current practice of medicine and its corresponding analytics use cases.

There is certainly variety in the data, but most systems collect very similar data objects with an occasional tweak to the model.
That said, new use cases that support genomics will certainly require a big data approach.

Health Systems Without Big Data

Most health systems can do plenty today without big data, including meeting most of their analytics and reporting needs.
We haven’t come close to stretching the limits of what healthcare analytics can accomplish with traditional relational databases—and using these databases effectively is a more valuable focus than worrying about big data.



Most healthcare institutions are swamped with some very pedestrian problems such as regulatory reporting and operational dashboards.
As basic needs are met and some of the initial advanced applications are in place, new use cases will arrive (e.g. wearable medical devices and sensors) driving the need for big-data-style solutions.

Barriers Exist for Using Big Data

Expertise and Security

Several challenges with big data have yet to be addressed in the current big data distributions.
Two roadblocks to the general use of big data in healthcare are the technical expertise required to use it and a lack of robust, integrated security surrounding it.


Expertise  

The value for big data in healthcare today is largely limited to research because using big data requires a very specialized skill set.
Hospital IT experts familiar with SQL programming languages and traditional relational databases aren’t prepared for the steep learning curve and other complexities surrounding big data.

Data scientists are usually Ph.D.-level thinkers with significant expertise.
These experts are hard to come by and expensive, and only research institutions usually have access to them.
Data scientists are in huge demand across industries like banking and internet powers with deep pockets.

The good news is, thanks to changes with the tooling, people with less-specialized skillsets will be able to easily work with big data in the future.
Big data is coming to embrace SQL as the lingua franca for querying. And when this happens, it will become useful in a health system setting. 

Information Age Healthcare - The need of hour for India

In India as well as countries around the globe, the cost of taking care of people continues to rise every year. At the same time that the world’s population is aging, chronic diseases like asthma, diabetes, heart disease and obesity are increasing at rapid pace in every age group. In addition to this shrinking workforce and shortage of doctors and nurses (India: is currently running short of at least 600,000 doctors and 1 million nurses), along with the fact that fewer young medical professionals are training to replace them.

Combine all this with legacy hospital infrastructure and technology, paper-intensive record-keeping, and inconsistent standards, and there is no doubt that the situation calls for a smarter, more effective approach to healthcare.  This is also critical because a robust healthcare system is the hallmark of organized development. Healthy citizens will translate into a productive workforce and a thriving economy.

By definition this is a holistic approach to healthcare that integrates the best of technologies to remove information barriers, enabling data to be analyzed and shared in real time. Smart healthcare is about forging time and creating cost-saving collaborative partnerships among doctors, administrators, insurers, and healthcare institutions. It is about integrating communications into a single, consolidated infrastructure, and giving communities and individuals the tools and knowledge they need in order to make more informed choices. Such digital healthcare delivery systems powered by the Network can significantly improve operational efficiency, optimize collaboration, and lead to better patient care and outcomes.

A comprehensive solution that integrates real-time voice and video, clinical collaboration, patient and asset tracking, electronic medical records and nurse call information allows hospitals and healthcare professionals to spend more time with patients and less time on administrative tasks. Smart healthcare solutions can help improve both care delivery and business operations for hospitals and medical professionals by:

• Providing essential information to doctors and staff, regardless of the devices used
• Giving real-time access to patient records, images and expert consultations 
• Accurate tracking and location of patients, staff, equipment and medical supplies 
• Education programs for medical staff and patients

These solutions take full advantage of the limitless possibilities of Telehealth. IP video technology can link patients and providers to specialists and primary care professionals, paving the way to faster and more cost-effective remote medical consultations, patient diagnosis, and chronic disease management.

In countries like India, critical investments are needed in healthcare (remote health, elderly care), health information exchange, and telehealth. Evidence strongly suggests that implementing Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) can result in higher quality and safer, more patient-responsive healthcare. Mobile collaboration technologies and BYOD for example can be useful in delivery of better health outcomes.

In summary therefore, adoption of technology enabled solutions complimented with an array of healthcare management services, will help the healthcare industry in India leapfrog into 'Information Age Healthcare', much quicker than imagined before.