Big Data and Healthcare (2018)

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Big data is changing almost every aspect of modern-day life. Healthcare is one of the most recent adopters of big data collection and analytics. Paddy Padmanabhan, a healthcare IT expert and CEO of Damo Consulting, says over the past 10 years health records have been moved to digital files. But, most of the time the advantages of doing so are not fully utilized. Health providers often do not share information with each other. So when you go to a new provider they have to start from scratch.

Padmanabhan, who is also the author of The Big Unlock: Harnessing Data and Growing Digital Health Businesses in a Value Based Healthcare Era, advocates for value or evidence-based healthcare. This holds providers more accountable for providing data to consumers indicating they are delivering acceptable care at a fair price.

Previously, when insurers would pay providers directly (and in far higher percentages), patients had almost no idea of the actual cost of their treatment. Providers were incentivized to charge whatever they could get away with. Today, patients have more choices, and providers are now forced to offer more transparency.

Padmanabhan theorizes that if the goal is to improve accountability big data is the next logical step. A lot of healthcare data is collected already and even more will be collected soon. So much so that artificial intelligence will be needed to assist in diagnosis and recommend possible treatment options. There is a vast range of potential applications for this data—sequencing your genome can provide far more information that your medical history alone.

There’s also, however, a downside to the collection and retention of this data. There is potential for the data to be misused. For example, insurance companies could use the data to predict future medical complications extremely accurately.  They could then refuse to cover individuals they predict a high cost of treatment for. Therefore, Padmanabhan stresses steps must be taken to protect our healthcare data.