Top 3 Ways Big Data Helps Decrease The Cost Of Health Care

Electronic Health Records (EHR) have dramatically changed the healthcare industry.  Originally, they simply provided a reservoir and omnipresent access to patient data. Today, the information EHR provides is automatically analyzed in real-time to improve patient care. IT Big data is the substance of groundbreaking real-time systems analysis that helps to improve patient care and outcomes while reducing healthcare costs.

The data that has been electronically recorded in the electronic medical record (EMR), automatically provided by intelligent medical devices, imported in real-time from diagnostic labs, and even supplied by patients has opened the door to the future of healthcare.   

Reducing Healthcare Costs

Healthcare organizations generate and use immense amounts of data.  Over the several years, this has increased as researchers, insurance companies, the federal government and others have released statistics and other healthcare knowledge to the healthcare industry.  By taking advantage of innovative technology, healthcare experts can gather significant insights from big data analytics. 

Some of the ways big data helps decrease the cost of healthcare are:

• Data analysis gives healthcare providers awareness of and insights on at-risk-for-illness populations, thus enabling a proactive response to prevent illness.
• Data has never been easier to share. With the pay-for-outcome agreements, healthcare providers are more motivated to do so.
• With precision accuracy, big data can identify areas where education and prevention are required for healthier populations at lower costs.
• Evidence-based data eliminates the guesswork of healthcare providers. Rather than depending on their own judgment, providers can base treatment and protocols on credible, scientific data. 

Chronic Disease Treatment

In the past, healthcare providers have been limited on the amount of patient history accessible to them.  When planning care and treatment for chronically-diseased patients with diverse symptoms, progress has been delayed.  Big data enables healthcare providers to more efficiently treat chronic illnesses and diseases.  EMRs facilitate pertinently, accurate patient documentation supplies doctors with correlative information that helps them fit all the pieces together in ways that have never been possible.  Healthcare providers can customize more effective treatments to provide a genuine personalized experience.  A comprehensive picture of historical treatments, diagnostic data, medical history, and meticulous medication information enables healthcare providers to provide more efficient and effective treatments for chronic disease patients.  This can result in cutting costs while, at the same time, reducing the potential for side effects and increase the patient’s quality of life.

Advocating Value and Change

Utilizing big data software gives healthcare providers the opportunity to improve their value to patients by the delivery of care being based on a patient-centric approach.  This data provides insight and knowledge to patients with their present health condition as well as encourage them to take responsibility for their health conditions.  By sharing information, productivity is increased, the overlap is reduced, and the coordination of care is enhanced.  Coupling provider reimbursement to performance and outcomes has led providers to work towards accomplishing optimal patient health rather than simply providing healthcare services.  Additionally, healthcare providers are given the incentive to innovate and improve. 

There are much more ways big data helps reduce healthcare costs such as reducing fraud, waste and abuse, re-admissions, and real-time patient monitoring.  Capturing, sharing, and storing vast amounts of healthcare data and transactions, as well as the expeditious processing of big data tools, have transformed the healthcare industry by improving patient outcomes while reducing costs.