Big Data Utilization Important Yet Elusive For Providers
By Greg Bengel, contributing writer
Two recent surveys show that providers see the need for utilizing big data but face significant complications in doing so
A recent survey conducted by the eHealth Initiative and the College of Health Information Management Executives takes a look at how providers are utilizing data and analytics. The goal of the survey was to evaluate providers’ attitudes of and trends towards the use of data, as well as the solutions and challenges providers are finding. The survey quantifies how providers feel about big data, and specifically, the obstacle that it is presenting.
According to the survey findings, “Nearly 80 percent of respondents felt that leveraging big data and predictive analytics is important to their organization’s strategic plans and priorities. However, this may not match reality on the ground. Eighty-four percent believe that the application of big data and predictive analytics is a significant challenge for their organization.”
What’s more, “Only 45 percent of respondents feel that their organization has implemented a flexible and scalable plan to adapt to the growing volume, liquidity, and availability of electronic health data.”
A FierceHealthIT article points out that the results of the eHealth Initiative are very similar to the results of a healthsystemCIO.com survey conducted last June. In that survey, FireceHealthIT tells us 52 percent of providers said that their organizations were utilizing big data, but not utilizing it at a “sophisticated level.” And what was standing in the way? According to 66 percent of responding providers, it was a lack of manpower and skills.
A closer read of the healthsystemCIO.com survey reveals that big data presents even more obstacles. Specifically, 76 percent of providers feel that vendors are overpromising on what they are selling. One hospital CIO is quoted as saying, “Vendors know it’s the key word, so they are selling it and hoping to find the right customer to help them develop what customers are really wanting.”
A recent article from McKinsey & Company says that while “the industry must undergo fundamental changes before stakeholders can captures (big data’s) full value,” capturing full value from big data could save anywhere from $300 to $450 billion in healthcare costs. That’s 12 to 17 percent of the $2.6 trillion baseline in US healthcare costs, McKinsey & Company says. The article also points out that the providers who have been able to capture the value of big data have already seen positive results, noting that, “Although the healthcare industry has lagged behind sectors like retail and banking in the use of big data—partly because of concerns about patient confidentiality—it could soon catch up.”