Every buzzword in technology brings with it a bunch of excitement. Some real, some exaggerated. In the past few years, healthcare has been hit by several buzzwords, some of which have impacted the landscape, while others seem to be just twitter fodder.
One sleeping giant that seems to now be waking up is Big Data.
You can think of Big Data as an extremely large pool of information. Like a public library’s worth of ideas all in computer form. The big difference is that computerized data sets can be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations.
Berkeley researchers estimated that the world had produced about 1.5 billion gigabytes of information in 1999, and that by 2003 that number had doubled, and continued to every 3 years.
A 2011 study by McKinsey highlighted that this growth in data creates a new challenge. The world now has “datasets whose size are beyond the ability of typical database software tools to capture, store, manage, and analyze”.
As computing processing power increases so does the ability to use Big Data.
For generations, healthcare diagnosis has been based on academic research and real world cases with breakthroughs, both for patients and medical teams.
Now the value of marrying clinical diagnosis with data is coming to the fore. Essentially the numbers are backing up the humans.
Bernard Marr writing for Forbes is optimistic about how Big Data is going to help. “For years, the basis of most medical research and discovery has been the collection and analysis of data: who gets sick, how they get sick and why.”
“But now, with sensors in every smartphone and doctors able to share information across disciplines, the quantity and quality of the data available is greater than ever before, which means that the potential for breakthroughs and change is growing just as exponentially.”
Although doctors are a source of vast medical knowledge, the modern medical landscape is slowly shifting emphasis away from doctors opinions to the hard facts of Big Data.
Pēteris Zilgalvis, Head of Unit ICT for Health and Wellbeing in the European Commission, says “By moving from a reporting approach to a predictive approach, Big Data is creating a new knowledge era in the world of medical care.”
An recent article by BigData Made Simple shares the value of the new resource “As more cloud-based Big Data medical repositories weigh in on patient care, much of the hard thinking may be removed from the doctor’s daily routine.”
Of course for many doctors to benefit there is a need for technology to be brought up to date. Cloud-based Electronic Health Records, and interoperability will create drastic improvements in a medical practice’s business efficiency, as well as their ability to treat patients more effectively.
As Big Data moves from the latest buzzword into the real world of predictive medicine and increasing doctor efficiency, it is well worth considering how it can impact the everyday behaviors of Doctors and their medical teams.
Want to Read More?
Big Data in Healthcare by Science Business
Big Data: A Game Changer in Healthcare by Bernard Marr
5 ways Big Data will affect healthcare providers in 2016 by Becker’s Spine Review
