It’s difficult to think about a more beneficial use for big data today than saving valuable lives every day. Around the globe today the healthcare sector is discovering more approaches to do that each day.
The main sources of big data on medicine has been identified through a report compiled by McKinsey & Company for the Center for US Health System Reform. The main source of big data that is transforming medicine are activity and cost data, clinical data, Pharmaceutical R&D data and patient behaviour and sentiment data.
Clinical data
These incorporate patient medical records and pictures accumulated through examinations or strategies, and in addition specialists’ notes. For instance, the Carilion Clinic, in Virginia, says it used programming language to process and analyze the big data of 350,000 patient records. The results then show that there are 8,500 individuals at danger of heart issues or disease. Additionally, the American Medical Association reported that examination of patient records discovered just 26% of kids who had recorded three hypertension readings at partitioned visits to their specialists had been analyzed as torment hypertension. This indirectly highlights the countless failures to the condition. (Bernard Marr, 2015)
Other than that, when we visit a specialist or go to the clinic, we have confidence in the learning that the healthcare experts treating us as per proven medical techniques, also called evidence-based medication (EBM). This implies they’re recommending sedates or selecting treatment techniques that have been tested effective in clinical examination. By mining patients records which are clinical data, we could take into account the way we administer to people. (Bernard Marr, 2016)
Patient behaviour and sentiment data
This is information from over-the-counter medication sales joined with the most recent “wearables” which screens your physical and heart rates. Data and information about daily lifestyles of patients which their experience and satisfaction can be obtained from social media which is updated frequently. Right now wearable gadgets are usually utilized for individual wellness. However, this is set to change as consumers are spending on savvy watches, wrist groups, running shoes and different wearables which is possible to reach $52 million by 2019, as indicated by a study by ABI Research. There are many applications available out there that enables patients to monitor their healthcare through sensor-construct applications on their cell phones. An “ingestible” scanner made by Protues, which is able to measure of a grain of sand, can be used to track when and how patients are taking their medicine. This will provide data about the consistent rates on how frequently patients take after their specialist’s instructions and will notify relatives if needed to. (Bernard Marr, 2015)
In conclusion, it is plain to see that there are lots of advantages to be retrieved from understanding the data about our wellbeing today. The quote “prevention is better than cure” has make researches work harder in finding proper treatment and solving problems in early stage of illness when it is easier to be treated now than later. This is because in earlier stages, the illness is much easier to be contained.
Later on we are likely to recuperate more rapidly from disease and harm, and we will live longer. New medications will be produced and our hospitals and surgeries will work more effectively because we have more information about the illness and what needs to be done. (Bernard Marr, 2016)
Also as quoted by Schulte (Apixio Chief Medical Officer before appointed as CEO) “If we want to learn how to better care for individuals and understand more about the health of the population as a whole, we need to be able to mine unstructured data for insights.”
References
Forbes Welcome. 2016. Forbes Welcome. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/02/16/how-big-data-is-transforming-medicine/#1783da7a1cd4. [Accessed 04 June 2016].
4 Ways Big Data Is Transforming Healthcare – Data Science Central. 2016. 4 Ways Big Data Is Transforming Healthcare – Data Science Central. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/4-ways-big-data-is-transforming-healthcare. [Accessed 04 June 2016].
Prepared by Samuel Low
BIG DATA ON HEALTHCARE 