With the current trend revolving around big data, it’s just the matter of time where the medical field would soon adopt it into part of its process. Big data is a collection of real-life data stream from the users whereby many industries can benefit from its enormous capabilities. This post will be discussing a few of its main capabilities in the medical industry and how it will revolutionize it.
Prior to the era of big data, the average development cycle of a drug is roughly around 10 years and costs as high as USD 1 billion dollars (Anon 2014). This cycle takes up too much time and money, so much so that people that needs it the most either don’t have the luxury of time or money to wait for the drug to be publically available. The aim of implementation of big data into the research and development side of medical drug is to reduce the development cycle and help produce a more affordable and effective drug for the public. A great emphasis is being put on how the integration between biomedical field and computing field. Collaboration between these two fields are necessary in order to facilitate and reduce the cycle of the research and development stage.
Another great innovation made possible by big data in the medical field is the ability to conduct real-time healthcare and clinical analytics (Lives n.d.). This allows medical practitioners to monitor the patient in real-time and observe their health condition. This allows the doctor to take better preventive measures and also provide a better treatment that is more suitable to the patient’s lifestyle. The ability to capture live datasets also provides significant value to drug manufacturers as it can also show how effective the drugs are, and also what are the side-effects that are not being discussed by the patient. Big data also allows medical institution to leverage on the statistical tools and algorithm to further predict the current health condition of the surrounding area. This allows the medical institution to allocate resources to department where it needs the most, thus speeding up medical treatment and reduce risks.
In conclusion, the main benefit that the medical industry can leverage from big data is the ability to speed up the process cycle from diagnostic to prescription of drugs. When it comes to health, being able to react quickly is also as crucial as prescribing the correct drug to the patient.
References
Anon, 2014. How to Transform Big Data into Better Health: Envisioning a Health Big Data Ecosystem for Advancing Biomedical Research and Improving Health Outcomes in Europe. , (November).
Lives, I., Big Data Analytics in Life Sciences and Healthcare : An Overview.
Prepared by Yee Kang
BIG DATA ON HEALTHCARE 