Wednesday, March 20, 2013
New Report Outlines Strategies for Using 'Big Data' in Health Care
Health care organizations have experienced some success in leveraging "big data" to improve patient care, but more needs to be done to ensure that such efforts lead to positive outcomes, according to a report from the Institute for Health Technology Transformation, Healthcare IT News reports (Miliard, Healthcare IT News, 3/20).
Big data refers to large volumes of information that can be gleaned from diverse data sources. By using advanced computing tools to analyze big data, researchers can identify trends and make scientific discoveries (iHealthBeat, 3/29/12).
About the Report
The report describes some ways in which health care organizations have used big data to improve patient care or gain valuable insight. However, the authors write, "It must be emphasized that the health care industry remains well within its infancy of leveraging big data for business and clinical use."
The report outlines five types of big data that can be analyzed for health care purposes:
- Biometric data, such as fingerprints, genetic information, X-rays and blood pressure readings;
- Human-generated data, such as electronic health records, physicians' notes and emails;
- Machine-to-machine data, such as information from medical sensors, meters and other devices;
- Transaction data, such as medical claims and billing records; and
- Data from websites and social media platforms.
Report's Recommendations
To achieve positive outcomes from the use of big data, the report recommends that health care organizations:
- Implement a carefully structured framework for data governance;
- Create dashboards and other easy-to-use data analysis tools;
- Provide platforms that allow health care providers to chart their progress on certain metrics; and
- Follow-through on making sustainable changes to health care structures and processes.
The authors write that the potential benefits of big data are "predicated on the assumption that the organization/providers are committed to evidence-supported decisions using analytic tools with available information." They add, "If that commitment has not been made, analytic tools provide little value" (Hall, FierceHealthIT, 3/19).
