In the grand scheme of things, it’s always ideal to look for solutions that help everyone involved. Patients, doctors, healthcare workers – everyone down to the person who handles the billing. In most cases, that magical, cure-all answer doesn’t exist. With big data, however, helping all sides is just the beginning to what this growing solution can provide.
Because of the mere nature of big data, it’s meant to help both ends of the spectrum. Doctors can see patterns to help predict illnesses, while patients can be made aware of upcoming epidemics, likely healthcare risks, or what treatment options statistically worked best. The less time a patient has to spend under doctor or facility care, the more money they will save.
In a study performed at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, data on premature infants was followed to see how preemptive measures could help improve patient care.
Specifically, the study surrounded nosocomial infections (hospital-acquired) in premature babies. These infections can be extremely dangerous, often fatal, to fragile patients. The study found that hospital monitors were able to record data that showed subtle changes in the infants 12-24 hours before any symptoms of infection were visible. Because the changes are so gradual and monitor data is too frequent and overwhelming, the brain can’t process it without help.
However, with data analysis, the same illness in the same timeline, can be quickly diagnosed; doctors were able to start treatment a full 24 hours before the infection would have been recognizable by humans. All that was needed was a little software to handle information that was already being collected.
These and other forms of early warning signs are working to greatly improve patient care and health – and at minimal costs to the patient.
Head to our patient and customer profiling page to learn more.
