Healthcare + Big Data = ?

Simply put, it equals revolutionary new techniques and lives saved. Big Data has totally changed our way of life. The enormous amount of information that we have at our fingertips, has made our lives simpler; there’s no denying it. But at the same time things are so much more complicated!! One of the most promising areas of implementation is of course, healthcare. This technology will be able to prevent epidemics and save millions of lives.

At first glance, Big Data and healthcare have nothing in common….however, Big Data could and is bringing many benefits to this industry already. It could be used to cure disease, allowing scientists to share and organize data around genome tracking and identification, spotting patterns in the way viruses replicate or spread, predict epidemics, and even avoid preventable deaths. Big data allows us to see big pictures. The simple fact is that there are very few areas in which this is more important than healthcare.

If you’ve been following our Blog recently (Let’s face it, who doesn’t?) you’ll know that in one of our articles we already explored Big Data and where it may be implemented. One of the conclusions we reached, was that healthcare is one of the most promising industries, in which Big Data could carry its weight. Let’s look at the 3 most promising aspects of Big Data in healthcare:

• Variety. Nowadays information can exist in many forms, including unstructured data in text format, data from various electronic devices, scanned documents, video or audio, and so on.
• Velocity. Basically, it’s the frequency of sharing and transmitting the information. In our society, where anyone has several devices, data velocity is of greater significance. Same goes for the health care sector as the velocity of data sharing is increasing everyday.
• Volume. Many experts are sure that by 2020 we’ll have 44 times more data than we had in 2009. The main purpose of Big Data is to manage data and depending on its application make it valuable.

But how can Big Data bring benefit to health care? The main point of Big Data technology is to transform complex and laborious tasks into simple ones. Here are a few ideas of Big Data implementation:

The ability to conduct researches

Thanks to Big Data technology, we’ll be able to conduct researches that we’ve never been able to do. In recent times the challenge has switched, from how to collect data to how to manage the massive amounts that we now have. Hence, it’s difficult to access or search information that is essential for people who need help. For example, we don’t know, with any degree of accuracy, how many people right now are being affected by disasters or by conflict situations. We have no idea about which clinic requires medicine and which is okay for now. We don’t know how many children were vaccinated in such countries as Africa. Sound like simple questions, right? The answers are there. A simple google search and half a day of mathematics would probably give you most of the answers, and there are programs that gather info like this, but it’s not easy, or simple, or cost-effective. Thanks to Big Data technology, we would be able to get answers to these questions and maybe save thousand of lives.

Data structuring and the possibility to provide customized and specific care

There is a huge amount of disorganized information in healthcare. It includes data in the form of scanned documents, images, notes. Big Data will allow you to organize all this information in an easy and effective way. You’ll be able to correlate this data with other data sources and set priorities based on the previous knowledge and findings.

Telemedicine

Despite the fact that telemedicine has been on the healthcare market for 40 years, it’s only now, with the technology development, it’s become possible as never before.

Initially, this technology was used for primary consultations and initial diagnosis, remote medical education for doctors. In some specific cases, it could be used in telesurgery where doctors are able to perform operations using robots and high-speed real-time data delivery without even being in the same place with a patient!

One of the facets of its implementation is being able to provide personalized treatment plans. This idea can be realized by linking big data in healthcare to the use of predictive analytics. It’ll allow doctors to predict diseases and avoid sentinel events.

One of the advantages of this innovation is the possibility to be treated at home without visiting a hospital. That will allow people to save their time and reduce costs of healthcare. Amazing and now, possible.

Summary

As you can see, Big Data could revolutionize the whole healthcare industry. We mentioned only a few of the possible implementations of this technology. But even this is enough to prove that the development of medical applications should be top-priority in data-science. Big Data technology in healthcare has the potential to save money and most importantly people’s lives! It’s always better to prevent a disease than to cure it, isn’t it?