By Natalie Burg
More and more companies are talking about big data these days—but it's more than a buzzword. It might just change the way healthcare works in the U.S. From better patient outcomes to a more transparent healthcare system to more accessible and affordable care, big data could change every inch of the nation's $3 trillion healthcare industry—all for the better.
According to Dwayne Spradlin, CEO of the nonprofit Health Data Consortium, the power to access and analyze enormous data sets can improve our ability to anticipate and treat illnesses. This data can help recognize individuals who are at risk for serious health problems. The ability to use big data to identify waste in the healthcare system can also lower the cost of healthcare across the board.
Healthcare's big data future certainly looks bright, but getting there might not be easy.
The Big Data Challenge
Before big data can deliver major insights, the companies behind these analytics engines require access to the necessary information. There's a staggering amount of healthcare data out there, but it's spread among hospitals, primary care providers, researchers, health insurers, and state and federal governments—just to name a few. Each of these acts as a silo, preventing data transparency across the healthcare system.
"We know that data is everywhere, and it's growing at an exponential rate," Spradlin said. "The problem is that this data is everywhere, but it's hidden and packed away, and it's incredibly fragmented."
In addition to aggregating a massive amount of data, there's the challenge of maintaining patient privacy. Spradlin stressed that while private healthcare data is critical to big data's success, it doesn't mean that your private data will become public. Figuring out how to leverage that information to deliver better quality care to patients while keeping it secure is a major challenge, and one that his organization isn't taking lightly.
"We have an enormous interest in ensuring that patient health information is, in fact, closely held," Spradlin said. "It's considered something you have a right to."
Perhaps the largest obstacle for big data is actually getting the U.S. healthcare system to put these new powers to work on a large scale. Achieving this would be a huge undertaking, but Spradlin remains optimistic. Once the minds behind healthcare's big data revolution overcome these early challenges, they'll be able to focus their attention on what he calls "monumental problems" in healthcare.
A Promising Start
Spradlin is hardly alone in his optimism. The Health Data Consortium recently held its fifth annual Health Datapalooza, a three-day event that drew over 2,000 attendees. According to Rock Health, venture capitalists invested nearly $700 million into digital health startups in just the first quarter of this year—that's 87% year-over-year growth versus the first quarter of 2013.
"This is probably the single biggest opportunity for innovators in our lifetime," Spradlin said. "It's one-sixth of the US economy, and it's ready and willing to change."
According to him, this change will likely come from outside the healthcare sector. "Healthcare is not known for being hugely innovative in and of itself. A lot of that innovation will come from the private sector."
The implementation of the Affordable Care Act was a major driving force behind this momentum, incentivizing providers to facilitate data sharing and become more data-driven. The more data that is shared, the more transparent the entire healthcare system becomes.
Data in Action Today
Big data may be the future of healthcare, but it's already making its presence known in the industry. Big data is critical to measuring the success of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). These are groups of healthcare providers that are rewarded for controlling costs and improving health outcomes, and penalized for doing the opposite. Meanwhile, innovative new companies like Wiser Together are using technology to connect with healthcare consumers in a new way to improve care and reduce costs.
We're also beginning to see tangible proof of how big data could benefit individual patient care. Watson, IBM's famous supercomputer, has demonstrated its skills as a diagnostician, taking all available human knowledge into account. Imagine what it could do with all available data on health outcomes, procedure efficacy, and cost of care. It could affect the quality of care of every provider in the nation, each with access to their own personal “Watson.”
"What IBM's Watson has done is really put a persona on this notion that the care experience could be substantially enriched by [big data]," Spradlin said. "And that's already being used in some experimental clinical environments. It's incredibly exciting."
What will it take for the American healthcare system to get more than just a taste of data's impact? According to Spradlin, the answer is "time and managed expectations." Coordinating, collecting, and analyzing huge amounts of data and implementing the findings could be years down the road.
"We should have realistic expectations," he said. "There will be big breaches of health data. There will be insights drawn from the data that are wrong, but as we really use and exercise these methods, the system will become evidence-driven and outcomes-driven… and the individual will become empowered, and some of the things we want to happen will happen."
Big data's healthcare revolution may not happen overnight, but a more transparent healthcare system, more affordable care, and—ultimately—a healthier nation are definitely worth waiting for.
A former downtown development professional, Natalie Burg is a freelancer who writes about growth, entrepreneurialism and innovation.
