Big data is revolutionizing how data is managed, analyzed, and leveraged across various industries, including healthcare. The healthcare industry has embraced big data in numerous ways, leading to a wide range of use cases. Here are 15 prominent applications of big data in healthcare:

1. Electronic Health Records (EHRs)

EHRs represent one of the most widespread applications of big data in healthcare. Each patient has a digital record that includes their medical history, laboratory test results, allergies, demographics, and more. With big data, EHRs are shared through secure information systems, accessible to healthcare providers, both public and private. These records are modifiable, allowing doctors to make necessary changes without paperwork and the risk of data duplication. EHRs enable healthcare providers to send reminders and alerts to patients for necessary lab tests, track prescription adherence, and improve patient care.

2. Patient Predictions for Better Staffing

Effective staffing is a daily challenge for shift managers in healthcare. Overstaffing can lead to unnecessary labor costs, while understaffing can result in suboptimal customer service, potentially endangering patients. Big data analytics enables healthcare providers to make accurate patient predictions, facilitating resource allocation for improved staffing and overall patient care.

3. Real-time Alerting

Real-time alerting is a vital application of big data in healthcare. Hospitals employ Clinical Decision Support Systems that analyze medical data in real-time, providing health practitioners with insights as they make prescriptive decisions. Real-time alerting, made possible by wearables and big data, helps reduce the need for in-house treatments, as doctors aim to keep patients away from hospitals whenever possible. For example, if a patient's blood pressure spikes rapidly, the system sends a live alert to the doctor, who can promptly administer appropriate measures.

4. Improve Patient Engagement

Big data empowers healthcare providers to enhance patient engagement, making it easier for patients to actively participate in their own health management. Many patients are interested in smart devices or wearables that regularly record their health data, including heart rates, steps taken, sleep patterns, and more. Patients with conditions such as high blood pressure or asthma can monitor their health with these devices, becoming more involved in their well-being, reducing unnecessary doctor visits, and fostering independence.

5. Informed Strategic Planning

Informed strategic planning in healthcare is another essential application of big data. Decision-makers in healthcare leverage big data to gain valuable insights that enhance their strategic planning processes. For example, care managers can analyze check-up results among patients based on different demographic factors to identify discouraging factors affecting treatment compliance.

6. Mitigate Hospitalization Risks

Big data is instrumental in mitigating hospitalization risks, particularly for patients with chronic diseases. Healthcare providers utilize big data to track various criteria such as medication adherence, frequency of doctor visits, and symptom monitoring to offer targeted preventive care. This proactive approach can significantly reduce hospital admissions. Additionally, hospitals can predict potential admissions and prepare accordingly, allocating space and resources for prospective patients.

7. Risk and Disease Management

Big data is used for risk and disease management, closely related to mitigating hospitalization risks. Healthcare organizations leverage a vast amount of data to gain insights into patients' medication profiles, disease symptoms, medical visit frequencies, and more. This wealth of information allows healthcare providers to deliver better, more accurate preventive care.

8. Staffing and Personnel Management

Beyond patient care, big data plays a crucial role in staffing and personnel management within healthcare organizations. Data-driven analytics help organizations predict staffing needs accurately. By efficiently managing staff levels and support, senior staff can provide essential support when necessary, streamline personnel and staff management processes, and enhance strategic planning.

9. Learning and Development

Continuous learning and development are crucial for healthcare staff to deliver quality care. Big data facilitates this learning and development process by tracking employee performance and training data. Healthcare institutions can gain insights into which staff members require training and when.

10. Reduce Fraud and Improve Security

Data breaches are a significant concern for healthcare organizations, as personal data is highly valuable and breaches can have severe consequences. Big data is used to enhance security and reduce fraud, ultimately saving costs. Despite the security challenges that big data brings, healthcare organizations can mitigate risks through security advancements such as firewalls, encryption technology, and anti-virus software.

11. Prevent Human Error

Human error is common across industries, but in healthcare, it can be costly and risky. Big data helps prevent human errors, such as prescription mistakes or incorrect dosages, by analyzing prescription patterns, dosage ranges, treatments, tests, and procedures. This reduces costs and enhances patient well-being.

12. Develop New Therapies and Innovations

Developing new therapies and innovations is a time-consuming and expensive process. Big data accelerates this process by helping experts identify potential strengths and weaknesses in trials and processes. By focusing on the right data, reducing guesswork, and pinpointing precise new therapies and innovations, big data saves time and resources.

13. Improve Telemedicine

Telemedicine has seen significant growth thanks to technologies like smartphones, video conferencing, wearables, and wireless devices. Healthcare providers use telemedicine for primary consultations, initial diagnosis, remote patient monitoring, medical education, and more. Big data helps personalize treatment plans, prevent hospitalization or readmission, and deliver effective remote clinical services.

These diverse applications of big data are transforming the healthcare industry, improving patient care, and enhancing operational efficiency. Big data's ability to generate insights and streamline various aspects of healthcare management is invaluable.


14. Help Manage Mass Diseases

Big data plays a crucial role in managing mass diseases, as highlighted by the example of the COVID-19 pandemic. The widespread nature of diseases like COVID-19 presented significant challenges to the healthcare industry. Big data allowed health experts to track the real-time spread of the disease, monitor virus mutations, and assess its impact globally.

In response to the pandemic, healthcare providers and organizations leveraged big data solutions. For instance, hospitals in the EU utilized software like InferRead to enable early patient diagnosis and prevent the further spread of COVID-19.

15. Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics is among the most significant business intelligence trends, and its applications extend far beyond business industries, including healthcare. Big data-driven predictive analytics empower healthcare providers to make data-driven decisions rapidly and enhance patient treatment.

These analytics solutions have predictive capabilities that help identify individuals at risk of specific health conditions. This allows healthcare providers to take proactive measures to manage the health of those individuals more effectively.

Big data is revolutionizing the healthcare industry by improving patient care, enhancing outcomes, and increasing the efficiency of healthcare organizations. The benefits of big data extend to everyone involved in the healthcare sector, with patients being the primary beneficiaries.