Professional Researcher Hints And Tips 3

Big data in the healthcare industry is approximately to get even bigger as a result of the move toward electronic health reports. Electronic medical records are acquiring a boost due to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. As such, medical researchers can expect an enormous influx of healthcare data to analyze.

The scientific community is abuzz about the potential for big data in the medical research arena. In line with Science 2.0, a science blog, several of the clearest opportunities recently identified inside this area revolve around reducing costs in several key areas:

High-cost patients - Did you know that just 5 percent of patients account for roughly half of all US healthcare costs? By targeting these high-cost patients, big data has the possibility to make a tremendous effect on total healthcare spending in the country. This really is a great example of the Pareto principle at the workplace.

Readmissions - With nearly one third of readmissions deemed to be preventable, using big data to predict which patients are at a high risk of readmission could lead to better interventions and reduced re-admissions.

Triage - Big data could be also used to enhance the triage process by applying algorithms to send patients to the correct unit for care and ensuring that everyone linked to providing that care is promptly informed throughout the process.

Decompensation - Decompensation refers to a patient's worsening health condition. Patient monitoring tools for example pulse rate and blood pressure level monitors are used to measure a patient's current condition. Using big data, researchers could possibly be better able to determine the risk of decompensation, allowing healthcare providers to intervene before the patient's condition worsens.

Adverse events - No one wishes to suffer from an adverse health event such as infection, a drug reaction, or renal failure. These events often end in death, yet will often be preventable. Big data could make huge gains in both preventing adverse events and slashing their associated costs.

Diseases affecting multiple organ systems - Systemic diseases that affect multiple organ systems are among the costliest to treat and manage. Using big data, medical researchers may be better able to predict the likely progression of a disease which, sequentially, would help healthcare providers develop a far more effective, and good researcher more cost-effective, treatment solution.

While these areas all represent significant opportunities for medical researchers as well as the medical sector at large, how can researchers possibly make feeling of all that data? Based on Dolphin, "Big Data relates to the fact that today's business intelligence systems are experiencing record levels of data growth from terabytes to petabytes and beyond. The challenge is in maximizing the opportunity for real-time business intelligence while minimizing the impact of exploding data volume on productivity and total cost of ownership (TCO)."

This really is done throughout the usage of business intelligence and data archiving software. With the proper tools in hand, medical researchers possess the capability to make feeling of the sheer volumes of healthcare data from the past, present, and future.