Source – bigdata.cioreview.com
Big data’s greatest asset is its limitless possibilities. It is already helping to solve some of the world’s most vexing problems, as well as providing better solutions to more common issues. However, this is only the beginning. With the convergence of powerful computing, advanced database technologies, wireless data, mobility and social networking, big data is gradually making inroads into the healthcare, ranging from medical diagnosis and imaging data in medicine to monitoring fitness data, only to mention a few.
As the healthcare sector transitions from a volume to value-based care model, it is essential for different stakeholders to get a complete and accurate understanding of treatment trajectories of specific patient populations. The only way to achieve this is by aggregating the disparate data sources not just within a single hospital’s IT infrastructure, but also across multiple healthcare providers, other healthcare players (e.g. insurance & pharmacy) and even consumer-generated data. Such amalgamated data sets would not only profit every healthcare industry player, allowing for superior care and providing access to low-cost healthcare, but would also most importantly benefit the patient by providing the right treatment, based on a sustainable pricing model.
It is predicted that every segment of the healthcare industry would be impacted by the big data, enabling it to comprehend how it should encourage desirable behavior and minimize less desirable behavior. Witnessing how big data has transformed consumer IT, it is clear that the promise of big data in healthcare is immense.