Benefit of Utilizing big data

One benefit of utilizing big data is the ability to drill down through large volumes of different types of data to determine patterns of care. With Medicare and Medicaid structuring their pay system upon quality, big data could be used as part of the quality improvement process.

While almost half of the healthcare organizations are using big data to support clinical decision-making, Wang et al. (2018) assert that utilizing this technology to determine patterns of care is another effective approach for healthcare organizations.

For instance, this approach could be used to determine the reason COPD patients are experiencing multiple emergency department visits in one year, improving patient care and reducing unnecessary hospital costs.

Since over ¾ of a healthcare organization’s information is unstructured data in the form of text files (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2022), use of big data systems to glean those patterns of care becomes an essential strategy.

Additionally, patterns of care obtained through big data analytics could further research and establish evidence-based practices.  Use of big data analytics will allow researchers to forward an exponential growth in research through digging for patterns of care (Coatney, K., 2018).

Therefore, while not currently a significant use in medicine, I believe healthcare organizations will come to employ big data analytics to determine patterns of care for improved quality, provide better value, and deliver better results in significantly less time.

One challenge of relying on big data analytics to forward a healthcare organization is that data governance is still in its infancy.

While the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 generally protects patient’s information from being unnecessarily disclosed (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022), limited legislation or regulatory requirements are given on how a healthcare system can used “stripped” data within their organization.

The most effective method of over coming this challenge is to be as transparent as possible with patients.  According to McGonigle and Mastrian (2022), over 80 percent of genetics research companies’ users agreed to information from their individual results to be used for research purposes.

Therefore, if a healthcare provider wants to avoid any ethical or legal concerns regarding the use of an individual’s information in big data analytics projects, the organization should attempt to share as accurately as possible how their data may be used and ask if it may be included for these purposes.

Anticipating future projects specifically can be a challenge as well.  Therefore, ethically, organizations may need additional consents when future uses are too far outside of an initial agreement.

This transparency not only protects patients’ rights, but it also allows for more fluid sharing of knowledge as McGonigle and Mastrian (2022) encouraged in their foundations of knowledge model.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022).  Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. https://www.cdc.gov/phlp/publications/topic/hipaa.html#:~:text=The%20Health%20Insurance%20Portability%20and,the%20patient’s%20consent%20or%20knowledge.

Coatney, K.(2018). Big data analytics capabilities, the business value of information technology, and healthcare organizations: The need for consensus in evidence-based medical practices. American Journal of Medical Research, 5(2), 28-33. https://doi.org/10.22381/AJMR5220183.

McGonigle, D. & Mastrian, K. (2022).  Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge (5^th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Wang, Y., Kung, L., & Byrd, T. (2018). Big data analytics: Understanding its capabilities and potential benefits for healthcare organizations. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 126, 3-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2015.12.019