INTELLIGENT VERTICAL
How data can drive efficiency
and improvement in the
healthcare vertical
David Whitton, General Manager of Kodak Alaris for the
Middle East, argues that the revolution in data collection can
be the impetus behind identifying health trends, discovering if
treatments are effective, and making decisions based on fact.
H
ealthcare providers in the
Middle East that leverage
data driven from clinical and
business analytics are discovering new
opportunities to lower costs, provide
better care for patients and establish
health programmes.
The on-going challenge, however, is
in being able to effectively compile all
forms of structured and unstructured
health data into an analytics database.
Though clinical and business analytics
can lead to dramatic improvements in
patient care and business operations,
it can be challenging to extract
comprehensive information from
healthcare data in unstructured formats
such as email, faxes, text messages
and paper, which can limit analytical
outcome accuracy and usability.
Forward-thinking organisations are
using data classification, extraction
and management software to
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INTELLIGENTCIO
free unstructured data that was
formerly trapped, in order to realise
a 360-degree patient view from all
existing health data.
As health data continues to increase
in volume, variety and importance,
organisations looking towards
the future are implementing new
strategies for collection, grouping
and analysis. Smarter data can
help healthcare providers integrate
and identify correlations between
previously inaccessible data, available
in real or near-real time.
New methods of applying clinical and
business analytics give healthcare
practices a holistic view of patient care
and health trends. These analytics
allow healthcare providers to move
from basing business and patient
care decisions on hindsight toward
making decisions based on insight
and foresight. Having access to health
analytics has the following benefits:
1. Helping care providers identify
health trends and risks.
Clinical analysis allows healthcare
practices to generate reports based
on aggregated data at individual and
group levels in order to identify illness
trends, proactively treat patients and
offer focused preventative wellness
programs or advice. Real-time
analytics can help predict disease
outbreaks, enabling preventative
measures such as offering
vaccinations for illnesses like the flu
and pneumonia, which traditionally
have high costs of treatment. These
measures not only reduce costs for
the business and for patients, but
they can also improve the overall
health of the community.
Clinical analysis helps reduce hospital
readmissions by helping clinicians
provide comprehensive, proactive
care and discharge at the right time.
It can highlight complications that
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