TREND #10: POSITION BIG DATA TECHNOLOGIES TO ENABLE THE EVERYDAY USE OF DATA SCIENCE
The Internet of Things (IoT) has been growing significantly as consumers and businesses recognize the benefits of connecting devices to the Internet. Gartner, Inc. forecasts that there will be 25 billion “connected things” by 2020. Healthcare organizations are also beginning to understand the value of the IoT. According to a report from MarketResearch.com, the healthcare IoT market segment is poised to hit $117 billion by 2020. While the number of connected devices is impressive, the attention shouldn’t just be on the sheer number of devices but rather the data, analytics, and insights these devices generate.
The healthcare industry is seeing explosive growth in the amount of data available for analytics. One of the biggest drivers is the collection and use of data from IoT devices such as medical devices, sensors and wearables. The IoT generates a massive amount of structured and unstructured data; in fact, healthcare providers are equipped with more data than ever before. A lack of data is not the challenge; the challenge is creating meaningful information that enables healthcare providers to focus on the highest priorities and drive improvements from strategic, operational, and, most importantly, from a quality of care perspective.
There have been vast improvements in analytics tools and techniques, but a lack of system integration continues to be a challenge for healthcare organizations. Uncovering and capturing the value of IoT data and marrying it to other source systems, such as electronic medical records, financials, and claims, is critical to generating a 360-degree patient view and the key to many initiatives such as population health management.
The IoT is not a technology trend on the horizon; it is here today, and it is having an enormous impact on the healthcare industry. Analytics capabilities are finally robust and intuitive enough to make sense of the IoT by generating data-driven, meaningful, and actionable insights in real-time. With the digitalization of medical records, wearable technologies, mobile data and the IoT, healthcare providers have a holistic view of their patients and are equipped with the data necessary to deliver personalized healthcare. The combination of the IoT and the AoT is powerful, and it is critical for healthcare organizations to stay focused on their highest priorities to ensure they don’t take on too much.
This is just one of the healthcare analytics trends for 2016. In our new guide, we take a look at ten analytics trends healthcare executives need to be thinking about in 2016 and beyond. We identify technology strategies and solutions that will help healthcare organizations succeed in a data-driven, digital world.
