How Data Analytics Can Transcend Healthcare Industry to the Next Level

Healthcare has always been fundamental to the well-being of the public and the population at large. However, the pandemic has transformed the way the world prioritizes healthcare and has given it a new perspective that is more inclusive, holistic, and data-driven.

While the pandemic has led to a stressed-out healthcare sector, it has also encouraged healthcare researchers to look into innovative tools and ways to deal with healthcare risks. Apart from monitoring and preparing ways to tackle COVID-19 surges, healthcare researchers across the world have also been increasingly banking on big data analytics tools to improve the detection and treatment of chronic diseases.

The healthcare industry in recent times has been relying heavily on healthcare data analytics (both at the macro and micro level) to manage a range of areas from clinical data to patient behavior, and from pharmaceutical to medical expenses management, besides helping boost operations efficiently.

Healthcare Data Analytics – How it Works

Data-driven analytics for the healthcare sector is a technological asset that enables seamlessness and efficacy despite being naturally complex. From sensitive electronic health records (EHR) accessed in real-time from patients to humongous data derived from the local health authorities, healthcare data analytics work in tandem with the government regulatory bodies to simplify processes and enable quick decision making.

Big Data analytics models enable healthcare entities to analyze and integrate data on social determinants of health. It helps policymakers make more informed healthcare decisions for the population - cutting across societal and geographical boundaries.

5 Key Benefits of Data Analytics in Healthcare
                                          
1. Harnessing the Power of Predictive Analytics in Healthcare
 
Predictive Analytics in healthcare is an enabler that has been helping the industry stakeholders make faster, accurate, and data-driven decisions that are safe and can enhance the quality of treatment for patients. Research laboratories in the United States are known to have gathered EHRs of millions of patients for setting up a database for predictive analytics tools during the pandemic.

However, the impact is far-reaching. Predictive analytics is now a boon for treating patients suffering from multiple conditions or having complex medical histories, besides facilitating early prediction and risk detection for chronic and coronary diseases.  
 
2. Effective and Timely Diagnosis of High-Risk Patients
 
Health is rightly the wealth that needs to be kept secure and highly taken care of by all since the slightest disregard can lead to costly and complex treatment procedures, which may not guarantee the desired result. Data-driven healthcare records deliver highly in-depth insights into the health patterns and medical histories of high-risk patients.

A patient’s medical data also helps the health practitioners deal with a chronic condition in a timely and effective manner, avoid medical emergencies and provide personalized medical care and treatment.

3. Staying Connected with Patients and Maintaining Privacy
 
Following the advent of data analytics, healthcare remains focussed on the human aspect of patient care and medical assistance. While effective use of data aggregators like wearables enables the patients to stay connected with the healthcare providers 24/7, it also saves expensive hospitalization costs as they can choose to recuperate in the comforts of their home.

Not to forget, the industry is giving impetus to the safe storage and handling of sensitive patient healthcare data while ensuring that the engagement levels of patients with the healthcare facility are well maintained.

4. Added Initiatives to Deal with Human Error
 
Health and healthcare are highly sensitive to errors – be it human or technology-induced. Medical errors of any kind are detrimental to health (and wealth), considering the high insurance claims that come with inaccurate prescriptions or treatment to the healthcare provider and facilities. Data analytic tools in recent times are very well known to facilitate the risk of unavoidable human errors, besides being used extensively for the reassessment of patient data and the prescribed treatment.              
 
5. Reduced Cost and Efficient Patient Management

Healthcare facilities (several times) have to bear the brunt of financial crunch arising out of dire human resources management issues, starting from overstaffing to understaffing. However, the effective implementation of modern technologies and tools such as predictive analytics can facilitate better staff management in healthcare facilities. Besides safeguarding business owners from unnecessary expenditure, it also helps enhance patient experience with minimal waiting periods, efficient treatment process, and seamless management of patients and hospital beds.

Over to you…

Data analytic tools for the healthcare industry issues are revolutionary considering the long-term benefits it promises for the healthcare facility stakeholders and the beneficiaries, i.e., the patients. Not only has it proven itself as the game-changer in the highly precarious period when the world was reeling through the pandemic and data was the only constant that guided the world with a possible solution to deal with the crisis.

The healthcare sector across the globe is now benefitting immensely from the historical data to deal with various segments of the industry. From critical patient care and treatment to providing accurate and personalized healthcare solutions, and from dealing with prior detection to medical risk assessment; from preventable care to improved management of hospital facilities and staff - data analytics is the way ahead for the future of the healthcare sector and transcend it to the next level.