Technological advances are changing the face of every industry, and healthcare is no exception. With trends in healthcare changing rapidly, and challenges such as rising costs, increase in chronic diseases, and a dearth of qualified healthcare professionals constantly plaguing the healthcare industry, high-quality care needs to be provided round-the-clock. The only way healthcare providers can meet the demands of the dynamic industry is by finding new healthcare models that have technology at the crux – technology that can not only improve care outcomes but also substantially reduce costs.

The Outcome of Data-Driven Care

The healthcare industry comprises of a multitude of professionals, who, in their day-to-day operations, generate a massive amount of data that needs to be constantly analysed. Data-driven care, through the use of modern technology, is helping the healthcare industry overcome the problem of data overload to make better-quality decisions and deliver superior healthcare. Data-driven care is being seen as a major contributor in improving overall care outcomes – the right data can not only speed treatment processes and eliminate redundant examinations but also allow quick analysis of patient information in case of an emergency.

Challenges in the healthcare industry have forced healthcare providers to look for ways to augment the quality of care while simultaneously reducing costs. Since traditional methods of care have proven to be insufficient, the healthcare industry is now embracing trends like big data analytics in order to move towards a value-based perspective. Data-driven care has surely become the new frontier in healthcare, facilitating organizations to:

1. Improve access to patient data: Historically, doctors and hospitals collected information on various diseases and planned their diagnoses and treatments based on research. Since most of this information was stored in individual databases, access to important data was difficult and limited. With patient information now stored in EMRs and common databases, researchers and practitioners can access critical data quickly and more efficiently. Capabilities such as data visualization allow them to see and explore more data than ever before and plan their diagnosis and treatment solely on data.

2. Get actionable insights: Modern analytics is enabling the healthcare industry to analyse treatments around the world and come up with the most effective care response. By having actionable insights into patient health data and medical history, healthcare providers can enhance their decision-making capability. Evidence-based medicine that is guided by data helps medical professionals to offer the right treatment for the right illness. And, instead of going through pages of reports and data, practitioners can now see at a glance when patients are due for treatments or follow-ups.

3. Build sustainable healthcare: Modern technology helps to convert large amounts of unstructured data into relevant and actionable data. By providing doctors with a stronger capability in developing preventive and long-term care services, it facilitates healthcare institutions to build sustainable healthcare systems, improve collaboration between the different healthcare entities and increase patient access to healthcare.

4. Offer consistent treatment: Data-driven care helps in making patient diagnosis and treatment consistent the world over. So far, physicians and doctors have used their personal judgement in order to treat patients for various illnesses. However, with cloud-based data visualization, there has been a paradigm shift towards evidence-based data. Doctors are now able to identify healthcare trends in real-time, compare individual cases with trends, and identify and close gaps faster in order to improve treatment effectiveness.

5. Reduce costs: Data-driven care is helping the industry address problems related to escalating healthcare expenses. Using big data analytics, researchers can mine data to see what treatment is best for a particular disease, work toward community-based healthcare, reduce the need for hospital stays, and reduce overall healthcare costs.

6. Improve policy making: Data-driven care is helping healthcare institutions uncover existing and emerging health patterns and determine future demands of the industry. By analysing individual health data within targeted populations across several factors such as age, lifestyle risk factors, previous hospital visits and financial standing, healthcare professionals are able to get a comprehensive view of patient health history and accordingly make healthcare policies that benefit the target population the most.

Improving Quality of Care

Data-driven care is helping healthcare professionals in efficient diagnosis and treatment of diseases and illnesses. With access to the right medical information at the right time, doctors can react quickly in high-pressure situations and drive their entire focus on patient experience. Data-driven care is helping healthcare institutions across the world to improve patient care, reduce complexity, improve efficiency, and empower decision makers with actionable insights.