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New technologies have fundamentally reshaped a host of industries, healthcare notwithstanding. Now, tools like data analytics have the power to bridge systemic and individual healthcare solutions to produce ideal results for patients and care facilities alike.

Facing an ongoing pandemic, healthcare professionals need optimized platforms for data transparency and care efficiency. Fortunately, technology has answers. By balancing the potential of data analytics to support individual patients as well as societal gain, tech is enhancing care on the whole.

The Power of Data Analytics Technologies in Healthcare

Data analytics holds the power to affect healthcare on the macro and the micro-level, and as such, holds the potential to change the field forever.

Modern information systems are driven by the accumulation and communication of big data — data sets too vast to be understood using conventional means. Instead, artificial intelligence takes care of complex analysis at inhuman speeds. Healthcare technologies are embracing the power of AI in data management to build the care systems of the future. This means practice management systems (PMSs) and electronic health records (EHRs) capable of connecting patients to better care while maintaining the integrity of their data.

Big data applications in healthcare management are as diverse as they are necessary, and it’s through these applications that the needs of the healthcare system are bridged with the needs of the individual to create ideal solutions. Big data management in-patient care means solutions like:

• Comparative analysis potential for overall population health;
• Imaging informatics and precision care through AI;
• Waste, fraud, and cyberattack prevention.

These solutions are all possible through the transparency and coordination that data analytics technologies bring to healthcare. Care facilities typically adopt the tech, then patients express the benefits directly and indirectly.

Here are just some of the systemic and individual wins tech and data analytics offers healthcare.

Systemic Wins

Big data systems, AI tools, and smart devices operating on the Internet of Things (IoT) all offer healthcare administration greater insight into efficiency and safety. From here, they can integrate solutions based on real-time data flow.

Data analytics and its adjacent technologies can empower hospital efficiency in a wide variety of ways. From improving care coordination through scheduling tools to enabling telemedicine services, care management itself is simplified with the help of technology. This makes for better prepared, more efficiently run, and more equitable care facilities.

For instance, data analytics reveals details like inequality in care outcomes like what we’ve seen throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Armed with information like this, care professionals can adapt systems to produce better and more effective care to the populations they serve. With the transparency only big data can uncover, health determinants can be more carefully assessed across a community.

Conversely, this means better, personalized care for the individual.

Individual Wins

The individual is what healthcare is ultimately all about. Individual care solutions and treatments have to be crafted that fit a person’s unique circumstances. We all vary in our genetics, and that means that care has to be personalized to be optimally effective. Fortunately, healthcare technologies are changing care and empowering patients.

These tools include telehealth, which has advanced significantly with the emergence of COVID-19. Now, telehealth video conferencing enables a patient to speak with their physician at less cost to themselves and the facility. Meanwhile, they limit exposure to pandemic viruses.

Additionally, AI plays a role in solutions crafted for the individual in everything from diagnostic visits to robotic-assisted surgery. Thousands of variables can affect treatment, and only a computer can model them all while ensuring machine precision. Through AI, big data sets model a person’s circumstances to draft personalized care recommendations based on the patient — much like Amazon or Netflix have algorithms that make personalized recommendations.

Healthcare providers can further empower their patients by providing data directly to the patient. This helps bridge communication gaps while bringing the patient into their own care. Patient portals are a common tool for explaining pricing, scheduling services, and answering common questions in the course of treatment. Healthcare systems are increasingly employing them to bridge gaps in scaled care services.

Balancing the Power of Tech to Benefit Systems and Individuals

Fortunately, the rise of data analytics tools within healthcare technology makes it easier to run a healthcare practice while staying focused on individual patients. AI allows for automated insights, which can then be applied on a micro-scale with individual treatments.

From robotics in surgery to a telehealth appointment scheduled by an AI, the system and the individual can both experience benefits from technology. The secret is the efficient use of big data analytics. With both patients and providers winning, balancing systemic needs with individual ones is simpler than ever before. Keep this in mind when crafting healthcare IT solutions and employing data-driven technologies.