There’s a revolution happening in healthcare right now—and, no, it doesn’t revolve around the Affordable Care Act.
Hospitals and other healthcare organizations are revolting against the traditional fee-for-service model of healthcare, in favor of outcomes-based healthcare, which views patient care as a holistic treatment process rather than as a disconnected series of isolated services.
Driving this revolution is an unlikely source: data. The explosion of data in recent years has allowed healthcare providers to collect and analyze more information in order to gain a deeper perspective of which treatments work best and why. Using this information, physicians and healthcare administrators can design optimal treatment models for specific illnesses that lead to lower costs and, more importantly, higher and faster rates of recovery.
Reaching this state of data-driven intelligence, however, can be a challenge for healthcare companies. Many of them have data stored in various silos throughout their organization—in marketing departments, administrative departments, accounting departments—rather than one central location.
In addition, much of the new data being created as part of the big data phenomenon is non-traditional data: handwritten notes, emails, social media posts. On top of this, the Healthcare Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) places strict controls on what kinds of data can be stored, accessed and analyzed—and by whom.
In order to leverage their data to deliver better patient care without running afoul of industry and federal regulatory mandates, hospitals and healthcare organizations are increasingly turning to big data experts to implement and optimize their big data solutions. As healthcare companies look for experienced partners to help them deploy big data solutions, there are several partner attributes that healthcare organizations should look for:
- Knowledge of data privacy policies, particularly HIPAA;
- Experience in guiding companies through the process of creating their own policy strategies;
- Broad technology perspectives that address the big picture of big data: collection, storage, migration, integration, analytic applications and real-time reporting;
- Firm relationships with leading big data solution vendors;
- Flexibility to bring in a variety of data management and analytic technology from different vendors for a best-of-breed solution.
With an experienced partner, big data solutions can not only lead to better outcomes, but also lead to lower costs, increased market share, higher customer satisfaction and higher customer retention. If you’re ready to join the revolution, talk to AdvizeX today. We can show you how solutions like HP Vertica can help you reach the best outcomes possible—for your patients and for your business. ▪