Big Data: We need to use technology to get smarter about care

HUNTINGDON, U.K. - Sept. 17, 2013 - PRLog -- Using data can help develop a fuller understanding of individuals and the factors affecting their social and physical health

(Excerpts from Dan Pelino, Guardian Professional, Friday 31 May 2013)

Everywhere in the world, health and social care is getting bigger – more patients, more caregivers, more facilities, more drugs, more cost. Healthcare spending alone is already a large percentage of the economy in most of Europe. It's 12% of GDP in the Netherlands and more than 11% of GDP in France and Germany. In the US healthcare consumes 17% of GDP.

Unless we want to further disrupt already fragile national economies, it's time for us to get smarter about care. Moving from aspiration to reality requires an approach to care where the focus is on the individual. Care isn't just about the doctor's office or intensive care unit, nor is it just about face-to-face relationships between patient and doctor. It's about everything that affects the patient, from age to work history to neighbourhood to social relationships.

Information and data gathered by all healthcare stakeholders (e.g. Doctors, Hospitals, Pharmaceutical companies, Public Health, and Social workers, is scattered in various databases and departments, making it hard to achieve a holistic picture of the patient. Healthcare organisations can magnify their impact on individual health by dealing with issues beyond office visits and hospitalisations.

There's an opportunity to dramatically improve the care ecosystem, making it more efficient, by applying analytics to data generated at every point in the care cycle. This phenomenon, known as big data, would develop a fuller understanding of individuals and the factors affecting their social and physical health.

Innovation makes it possible to co-ordinate smarter care that is focused on treating the individual, rather than just reacting to a health crisis. That offers the potential of both improving care and controlling the seemingly inexorable rise in spending.

Activ8rlives says: With the £20M saving required by the NHS in the next year and the anticipated £30B shortfall in NHS budget, it is time to employ technology to join up the health carers with the individual at the centre of their care. Self-monitoring of long-term health conditions could provide one piece of the puzzles, with the added benefit of empowering individuals to change their unhealthy lifestyle habits that may lead to later onset of disease and/or reduce the burden on the NHS.