Healthcare practices are adding terabytes’ of patient data to their inventory every day. This data can be mined for insights which can help them improve patient care in varied ways. Cardiologist Homer Warner, regarded as the father of medical informatics, used patient data to create a treatment protocol that increased the chances of patient’s survival. Later, he along with his colleagues went on to create a decision-support tool called Health Evaluation through Logical Processing (HELP), which provided doctors diagnostic advice and treatment guidance. That, however, is a one-off case. Data collected by most healthcare service provider, have by and large remained unused. It’s time they realize that the data they collect is a veritable goldmine of information and can be tapped to predict outbreaks of contagious disease and even identify frauds.
With this in mind, we have put together some of the major benefits of using data analytics in healthcare sector-
1. Increase the accuracy of diagnoses
Physicians and other healthcare delivery professionals can use healthcare analytics to take more accurate decisions related to diagnosis and provide better care. For instance consider a patient who comes to emergency room with a severe chest pain. The doctor present at the site provides emergency care, but he is not able to determine whether or not to hospitalize the patient. In such a situation, the doctor can use healthcare analytics to assess the seriousness of condition, know for sure what needs to be done and if need be, send the patient home safely without having any doubts.
2. Identify at-risk patient and provide preventive care
Primary care physicians can leverage healthcare analytics to identify at-risk patients within their practice. Based on this knowledge, they can advise these patients to make certain lifestyle changes and avoid potential risks to their health.
3. Offer targeted treatment to individual patients
It is reckless and potentially hazardous to give treatments that are not needed or the once that won’t work for a specific patient. And by helping doctors to decide on the exact treatment needed for each individual, healthcare analytics provides a way out of this situation.
4. Pharmaceutical companies can use healthcare analytics to best meet the needs of patients in a particular location
Pharmaceutical companies can use healthcare analytics to identify the medications that patients, living in a particular area, frequently take. They can later act upon the data by increasing the production of those drugs that are needed the most and reduce the productions of medication that are not required, thereby saving millions of dollars.
5. Patients can become better informed and reap the benefits of better outcomes
With the help of healthcare analytics, it is possible to keep patients more informed about ways to improve their health. This helps in creating awareness about well-being. A patient who is aware of the outcomes will actively collaborate with physicians for better outcomes.
Though the benefits to healthcare analytics is unlimited, what’s more important is to associate with reliable service providers – ones who have the experience and expertise to handle analytics. We combine latest discovery and statistical techniques with state-of-the-art information management technologies to help you to explore data and get insights that may otherwise remain hidden. And by leveraging these capabilities, you can target the right customers and offer optimal solutions to deliver healthcare services that are more transparent, effective and efficient.
Contact us immediately and outsource your healthcare analytics needs.
