Big data is a popular buzzword that keeps appearing in nearly every industry, even medicine. But until now, it hasn’t really made its way into the wide and varied world of surgical procedures.
Recent advances in technology have changed the way surgeons collect information, determine that a patient needs surgery and even the way these procedures are performed.
Here are three ways surgical procedures are benefiting from the adoption of big data in the medical industry.
Biliary tract cancer, or cancer of the bile ducts, is diagnosed in around 8,000 people in the United States every year, with higher occurrences appearing in Southeast Asia due to a parasitic infection that is common in the area. Traditionally, the five-year survival rates for this cancer depend heavily on the location and type of biliary tract cancer, but they don’t generally rise above 30%.
A new phase 3 clinical trial recently completed and presented to the American Society of Clinical Oncology may have completely changed the way this type of cancer could be treated in the future. Using an already established drug known as capecitabine, researchers were able to improve median survivability by more than 15 months post-surgery.
Big data is essential for the dissemination of this kind of discovery. Networked servers can get this potentially lifesaving information out there without needing to wait for traditional information-sharing methods like publishing or presentation to scientific societies.
Millions of surgeries, both inpatient and outpatient, happen every single year. Big data is allowing doctors around the world to create a database of all surgical procedures being performed, as well as their success or failure rates, and any updates or changes to procedure. This database can be updated in real-time to help improve the efficiency of these procedures and potentially save or improve lives as new techniques are discovered or perfected.
A database like this is already in place in Japan, spanning nearly 5,000 hospitals.
