The Essential Role Big Data Plays in Patient Care
The modern data revolution is upon us. It’s been boiling over for a few years now. Nearly everything and anything exists in a digital form, collecting, reporting and processing important digital content — from fitness trackers that monitor your personal health to smartphones that track how you use them and interact with the world around you.
IoT, or the Internet of Things, is a great example of how the world is becoming more digitized. Such devices are essentially smart, connected platforms meant to collect and report various streams of data. They can also reach out and communicate with nearby systems and devices. Imagine a smart home thermostat that can help you conserve energy by cutting down on air and heating use, yet can also sync up with home lighting systems to save you money on electricity bills.
The healthcare and medical industry is no stranger to this change, and just like everything else, it’s also becoming more modern, more digitized. You wouldn’t think so, but it helps doctors and health professionals become more proficient, and offers better care and coverage for patients.
To understand how it helps — or how to leverage it — you must first understand why and where data makes such an impact.
The best way to explain it is this: Everything you do, everything you interact with and everything you experience essentially creates a stream of data. That information can be collected using modern digital systems. The data then goes to a remote network, where it can be analyzed and processed to extract actionable insights.
Let’s say you visit the doctor because you’re having regular chest pains. A traditional visit would require you to share symptoms, personal activities and various consumable in your life from diet and food to the medicines you’re taking. The health care professional would then use their knowledge and experience, combined with the information you provided to make a proper diagnosis.
The obvious first thought behind what’s causing chest pains is a potential heart attack or similar health issues. However, there are many underlying reasons why a patient might be experiencing chest pain. Anxiety and panic attacks, for example, can also cause severe pain.
In the future scenario, the data the doctor would normally collect instead goes into a computer-based system, and an AI tool or platform assesses the information and delivers a diagnosis. The biggest difference is that the computer system has much more information at the ready.
