How Big Data Can Thwart Epidemic Diseases
Digital disrupting technology such as Big Data is globally revolutionizing healthcare. The new technology is bringing about digital transformation into every aspect of how a healthcare facility works. It is helping doctors share best practices and treat patients. According to a report by research firm Markets and Markets, global healthcare analytics market could reach $24.55 billion by 2021 from #7.39 billion in 2016, at a CAGR of 27.1%. Several Indian healthcare providers are experimenting with the technology.
Usually, disease outbreaks get detected retrospectively. They are detected either after they are resolved or around the time they begin to wane. Timely feedback of infection patterns as well as collection of relevant data is a perplexing task faced by hospitals. Timely response can reduce infection-related adverse outcomes and bring down the cost and length of stay, particularly when the infection is hospital acquired or it is has secondary complications. In all this, microbiology data plays a significant role in controlling the disease.
This includes early recognition of outbreaks as well as collaboration and notification within the various healthcare teams. The process is resource-intensive and takes time for the huge corpus of structured data—generated from laboratory reports—to be analyzed. By the time it is carried out it results in two things: slower patient recovery and complex care processes. This is where modern communication and digital technologies can prove to be immensely beneficial. They can ensure that the communication of infection surveillance on time leads to prompt analysis and action. For this, hospitals need to analytics in their digital Hospital Information System (HIS).
A multi-dimensional analytics engine processes Big Data coming out of clinical laboratory reports and then analyzes it. The analytics is then leveraged for clinical use. The model is integrated within the HIS. It provides clinical data for analysis as well as measures the spread of infection inside hospitals.
