Big Data, Big Opportunity

There are few industries that could do more with big data than healthcare (no, we’re not going to talk about the NSA). Big data is set to transform healthcare, but in an industry that is vital to both our wellbeing and our economy, change doesn’t come easily and not everyone is ready for it.

Big data is the simplistic yet ominous name given to the incomprehensibly large amount of digital content that is being amassed about, well, everything—including you. The travel habits recorded by your GPS, the information you enter into your health-tracking app, and the things you like on Facebook are all parts of your data footprint.

Big data, when it comes to healthcare, also includes the data recorded by doctors who are treating patients with a particular drug, average hospital wait times, treatment outcomes, prescription coverage statistics, etc. All of these bits of data are out there and can be picked apart and reassembled to deliver outstanding revelations. Big data isn’t just the fact that all of these bits of data exist; big data is the potential for connecting these data to create contextual knowledge.

The first challenge for big data is, obviously, managing the volume of information. Most have realized that transparency is a necessary step. The data needs to be accessible so that the best and the brightest can figure out how to make it useful. (That doesn’t mean exposing all of your personal information, as technology has given us the ability to anonymize the data first.) Businesses in the health sector will need to let go of the idea of owning data and instead focus on the best way to extract meaning from the data, because that’s where the war will be won.

Another challenge will be getting all the databases, both public and private, to work together. Data is collected in a number of ways, and different databases don’t always talk to each other. Standards will need to be established, and then we’ll need to be able to convert non-standard data to meet those standards, which sounds complicated—and it’s actually even more complicated than it sounds—but it can be done and must be done. Realizing the promise of big data will require cooperation among diverse segments of the healthcare industry, policy makers, and technology experts.

So why go to all of this effort? What can big data do for us? Big data can revolutionize healthcare both in efficacy and in efficiency. It can reduce the variability of care because the ample data will prevent decisions from being based on insufficient, anecdotal evidence. Big data can aggregate information that often gets lost, like data about treatments that don’t work, and knowing what doesn’t work is just as important as knowing what does. With better treatment and decreased trial and error, healthcare will become more efficient and less expensive.

Big data sounds impersonal, and the data is, obviously, impersonal, but how it can be put to use is anything but. The entire purpose of big data is to deliver the best possible outcome for individuals. Data can be separated by demographics or other personal information, so if it turns out that certain conditions don’t seem to impact cat owners as seriously, your care provider will know. For someone who’s experiencing a rare medical condition, a condition that his or her specialist has only seen a few times, big data could bring together all available information from around the world and give that patient a better chance at accurate diagnosis and treatment.

Big data does have a scary side. Do you want your insurance provider to deny coverage because you admitted on Facebook that you’re not sticking to your diet? That’s not so farfetched, as insurance providers in the U.S. and Canada have already stopped payments based on patients’ social media pictures and posts.

Despite the risks, the economic benefit will drive the use of big data. A recent report by McKinsey & Company estimated that U.S. healthcare spend savings as a result of the big data could be more than $300 billion, which is why the U.S. government has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in research and development.

Big data is on its way. Now, let’s just make sure we do this right.