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Big Data and Federal Health Care: Data Analytics can be More Powerful than Penicillin
Big Data technologies are slowing being rolled out and experimented with by federal health care agencies to help improve patient care.
Steve O’Keeffe, founder of MeriTalk, said that “forty-seven percent of ‘feds’ say the successful use of mHealth technologies and data has the potential to be more impactful than the discovery of penicillin. That’s a real shot in the arm for improving federal healthcare.”
A report by Meritalk and sponsored by EMC found that:
- Roughly one-third of federal agencies have launched a project involving Big Data.
- Big Data is helping federal health agencies improve patient care (35 percent), reduce costs (31 percent), improve health outcomes (28 percent), and increase early detection (22 percent).
- Big Data has the potential to significantly improve the delivery of health care. 63 percent say that it will help improve tracking and managing health. 62 percent say that patient care should improve. 60 percent say that it would improve preventative care.
- Fifty-nine percent federal agency executives with health-care responsibilities say that they expect over the next five years that success in their agencies depend on managing big data.
But despite some early success with Big Data, federal agencies still struggle. Budget and resource issues constrain the efforts by federal agencies to do more. For example, only 35 percent of agencies have invested in IT system improvements towards being able to analyze data, and only 29 percent say that they have any IT professionals on staff with data analysis skills.
Dan Dougherty, vice president, EMC Federal, said that “emerging mHealth and M2M technology will together create a new healthcare data deluge, and tremendous opportunity to improve efficiency and patient care. DoD delivers healthcare to nearly 10 million people through TRICARE, and we know costs have been rising. Big Data analytics, mHealth, and M2M technology can make an impact in key areas including helping to more successfully manage chronic conditions with improved preventative care–monitoring and addressing symptoms before they become acute.”
