Advances in technology translate into better, more informed patient care in a number of ways. Utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), health care providers can analyze health risks with various treatment plans and develop a plan of action that is best for each individual. The result is reduced costs and better outcomes.
Here are the ways big data is transforming patient care delivery.
1. Personalized Treatment Plans
Researchers describe traditional health care as a trial-and-error approach, where doctors try a medicine and switch to others until they get the desired outcome. The old approach leads to poor outcomes and adverse side effects.
Big data can access patient history and specifics, see what data holes exist and make an assessment in mere minutes. Doctors can individualize treatment based on what’s worked for the person in the past or based on family history.
2. Early Detection
Big data is helping medical professionals and researchers better understand the signs of various diseases. Early detection can result in better survival rates and improved quality of life for fatal diseases.
Researchers can obtain data from a wide variety of studies on the efficacy of treatments. They can also evaluate the overall risks of medications to assess how well they work for different uses.
3. More Secure Personal Data
Much of the information gathered during patient care is highly personal and identifying. Medical professionals might collect Social Security numbers, credit card information and other details that identity thieves could use against someone.
Cyberattacks can directly impact patient health. Around 20% of health care companies have higher patient mortality after a breach, and 57% report poor patient outcomes.
Big data can make the data collected during patient care more secure. Machines improve with each update and can quickly identify threats or changes in data delivery to stop cyberattacks before they do damage. Combined with encryption and data masking, large databases become more secure.
4. More Efficient Hospitals and Care Centers
A central database creates more efficiency across the system. Many hospitals now have small care centers in local communities or have multiple locations. Rather than collecting information every time a person visits, health care providers can access past visits and details about the person, making care and future visits more efficient and effective.
Even insurance data and payment information can already be in the system, allowing for rapid checkout and the ability to turn patients over so more people can be seen and treated in an overburdened system.
For those offering telemedicine, better remote monitoring happens when everyone serving the patient can access data from wherever they are.
5. Reduced Medical Errors
The cost of health care is projected to rise 8% this year. Many health care organizations are looking to technology to reduce costs. Patients are aware of the potential for AI to improve efficiency. Around 46% of surveyed participants said generative AI would make treatment more affordable, while 53% felt it would improve accessibility.
As technology advances, computers will highlight serious issues, such as an allergy or past history of poor outcomes with a particular medication or treatment protocol. AI can even flag if a number is inputted wrong, avoiding overmedicating a patient. Practitioners might even use AI to come up with a few treatment scenarios, using the computer’s insights alongside their real-world experience treating patients.
6. Improved Critical Response Times
Emergency services often have to assess a patient in mere seconds and begin treatment with the hope of saving someone’s life. Big data can speed up the process with details already in the system and offer predictive outcomes through lightning-fast analytics. AI can analyze wearable device input that tracks heart rate or oxygen levels so medical professionals can respond instantly.
In cases where a person is having a stroke, heart attack or bleeding out, saving time can mean the difference between a positive outcome or loss of life. In addition, patients are less likely to return for repeat visits when the treatment plan is solid and they follow up with their primary care doctors or specialists.
Star Trek May Be Possible
For anyone who has ever watched the old Star Trek series, where Dr. McCoy scanned a patient with a hand-held device and instantly knew what was wrong and how to treat them, advances in AI and big data may not be far off of that level of care. As technology improves, expect better outcomes for serious health risks, dealing with diseases and treating genetic problems. Big data is transforming the way health care providers deliver care to patients in positive and exciting ways.
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