Great Researcher 2

Big data in the healthcare industry is about to get even bigger due to the move toward electronic medical reports. Electronic medical records are receiving a boost because of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Therefore, medical researchers may anticipate an enormous influx of healthcare data to analyze.

The scientific community is abuzz about the possibility of big data within the medical research arena. Based on Science 2.0, a science blog, some of the clearest opportunities recently identified in this particular area revolve around reducing costs in several key areas:

High-cost patients - Did you realize that just five 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 impact on total healthcare spending inside america. This really is a good example of the Pareto principle at the job.

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 also be used to improve the triage process by applying algorithms to send patients to the correct unit for care and ensuring that everyone associated with providing that care is promptly informed throughout the process.

Decompensation - Decompensation refers to a patient's worsening health condition. Patient monitoring tools such as heart rate and blood pressure level monitors are used to measure a patient's current condition. Using big data, researchers may be better able to determine the risk of decompensation, allowing healthcare providers to intervene prior to the quality patient care's condition worsens.

Adverse events - No-one desires to suffer from an adverse health event such as infection, a drug reaction, or renal failure. These events often cause death, yet tend to 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 could possibly be better able to predict the likely progression of a disease which, in turn, would help healthcare providers develop a more effective, as well as more cost-effective, plan of action.

While these areas all represent significant opportunities for medical researchers and the medical sector at large, how can researchers possibly make feeling of all that data? In line with Dolphin, "Big Data relates to the very 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 over 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.