Big data changes health care landscape

Professor Jan Casselman, chairman of the radiology department at St. John’s Hospital in Bruges, Belgium, once said installing a hospital-wide automated dose monitoring system has gotten top European radiologists interested in data management.

The Web-based patient radiation dose monitoring software captures, tracks and reports radiation doses directly from any imaging device. It helps radiologists deliver the right dose. By tracking patients’ cumulative dose over time, the medics can take steps to prevent excessive medical radiation exposure. 

Casselman said that the DoseWatch system helped the hospital lower its dose levels by 25-30 percent within a few months of the installation. Before, he and his staff used to pinch whatever they could to maintain the dose levels.

As can be seen in such cases, the healthcare industry has become increasingly open toward the rather-unfamiliar term “big data management.”

To remain competitive and provide for patients by delivering the highest-quality care possible, it’s imperative that the industry workers shift their focus towards software-enabled technology and services which can help improve the way healthcare is delivered to patients globally, clinically, financially and operationally.

From cost reduction and treatment decisions to scheduling doctor visits and ultimately providing optimum care for individual patients, large and complex data sets, on-hand database management tools and traditional data processing applications are all rapidly becoming useful.

Improved software, data and analytics can help address the operational and clinical efficiency needs for driving up productivity ― similar in nature to how other industries have improved productivity over the past decade. A General Electric white paper published in 2012 estimated that a 1 percent increase in global healthcare efficiency would help generate savings of $63 billion.

Industry insiders expect big data could help healthcare providers do more with less while driving better outcomes ― tackle the changing consumer demand, increased cost pressure, staff turnover, market consolidation and growing consumerism.

And pioneering hospitals have introduced solutions which enhanced their ability to provide high-quality, affordable and safe care.

But at the end of the day, what needs to be kept in mind is that no matter how important the accumulation of big data in the healthcare industry has become as a source for enhancing productivity, it will never replace the role of experts. It will just help them make better evidence-based decisions.

Doctors and other healthcare professionals have been trained to make the best medical decisions for their patients, and that is something that the computer cannot take over.

By Yoon Young-wook, Healthcare IT General Manager, GE Healthcare Korea