Medical Industry Takes Advantage of Innovative Technologies to Provide Better Care

Natural language processing, business intelligence, data management and analytics are all being utilized by the medical industry. If any industry needs big data to make more informed decisions it is hospital administration and medicine. GigaOM discusses the technologies this industry is using and "Better Medicine, Brought to You by Big Data."

Based on the case studies this article details, it seems invariable that these technologies will steer healthcare into the next generation. For example, doctors and staff at Seattle Children’s Hospital are utilizing Tableau to analyze and visualize data. this resulted in a savings of $3 million on supply chain costs and prevented medical mistakes.

With efforts nationwide focused on lowering costly procedures, the article explains how big data can help:

It’s always good if you figure out how to diagnose diseases early without expensive tests, and that’s just what Seton Healthcare was able to do thanks to its big data efforts. Trying to find better ways to detect congestive heart failure early in order to save the exorbitant costs of treatment as the disease progresses, a team found that a distended jugular vein — something that can be spotted during any routine physical exam — is a particularly high risk factor.

We cannot believe that this article did not bring up one of the prime innovative technologies we have today: infrastructure solutions. In terms of preparing and enriching data for analytics, no other technology has the power.

Megan Feil, July 18, 2012