Data Analytics in the Continuum of Health
This article originally appeared on the NVTC Blog.
Data is being generated at unprecedented levels – with more than 2.5 quintillion bytes being created every day. Unlocking the potential value of this data will help accelerate research, develop targeted therapeutics and improve the delivery of healthcare. Today’s information and computational sciences and technologies are playing a critical role in delivering better healthcare to everyone.
Accelerating the path to discovery and finding targeted therapeutics to address some of the most chronic diseases is a promise that can be largely fulfilled with exploiting available data. Whereas primary investigation has been the most important source for generating data and discoveries, today we see how data scientists are curating existing data to make it searchable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.
A panel of experts discussed the role of data analytics in the continuum of health at the recent NVTC Capital Health Tech Summit and provided valuable lessons on how to protect, govern, and transform data into valuable information and health insights. The panelists discussed different ways to enable health data to be searchable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. Key themes from the discussion included:
Building a data-rich infrastructure: Incorporating genomic and proteomic data into clinical delivery is a challenge that is being met with innovation in technology and information architecture, transforming large, disparate data sets into consumable, actionable packages.
Utilizing advancing technologies: Deploying machine learning and predictive analytics alongside data, processes, and the workflows that already exist within hospitals can help to predict and prescribe new protocols. For example, the use of predictive analytics and machine learning resulted in a 39 percent reduction in patient falls in just six months at a local hospital.
Improving wellness: Enabling the delivery of integrated wellness, disease management, and healthcare services to the community based on insights from data. For example, data analytics is playing a key role in improving the effectiveness and global efficiency of transfusion medicine and cellular therapeutics.
Reducing risks: Helping to prevent the spread of major diseases, such as the Zika virus, by integrating datasets from multiple sources to identify geographic risk patterns. Data also allows for the benchmarking of activities to guide decisions that will make sure that the right person gets the right treatment at the right time.
Preparing a new generation of data scientists: Bringing together interdisciplinary individuals with domain and technology expertise to develop leading public health and precision medicine professionals. Today, many institutions of higher education are offering advanced degrees in data sciences – combining the knowledge of biological sciences with computational and mathematical sciences to provide a generation of data scientist capable of unlocking values hidden in large and complex data systems. Data scientists today are already showing tremendous progress in biomedical computing in terms of developing meaningful solutions for analytics, visualization, as well as data management and governance.
With these advances, real challenges remain with limitations raised by ethical, legal, procedural and even technological constraints. In order to successfully meet these challenges, the industry must use a sound foundation of proven techniques and processes to ensure predicable results. However, the continued convergence and collaboration of biomedical sciences and technologies – along with increased demand for precision healthcare – will provide the impetus to meet these challenges and deliver real breakthroughs for better health.
View full video from the panel:
The panel discussion was moderated by Mike Atassi, Vice President, Dovel Technologies and was comprised of Aaron Black, Chief Data Officer, Inova Translational Medicine Institute; Dr. Abigail Flower, Lecturer, Department of Systems and Information Engineering, University of Virginia; Chris Ghion, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Adventist HealthCare; and Dr. Barbee I. Whitaker, Senior Director, Department of Research, AABB.