Blogs

Have you ever thought how giant enterprises like Facebook, Google and Microsoft have harnessed big data technology so spectacularly well? These consumer-centric industries are continuing to succeed at a global level. Do you know what they all have in common? APIs.

Is it possible that despite significant efforts of your providers and groundbreaking innovation focused on improving healthcare quality and affordability, the cost of care in your facility just won’t slow down? Perhaps you have an optimized EHR, state-of-the-art health IT and dedicated providers, yet bringing down the costs requires focusing on little things we often overlook- little things that make up the fabric of the tapestry we call healthcare.  

Have you ever come across the story of Dr. Reed of MS Family Medicine Health care? The story where her consistent efforts to stay connected with her patients had helped them achieve not just their personal health goals but also improve their overall health status. The impact she created on her patient population was so huge that patients with chronic conditions have been able to reduce or stop the regular medications.

Healthcare has lately been dotted with data-driven innovation. Companies with huge data warehouses like Google, Facebook, Amazon have made use of next generation technologies to deliver connectivity, ease of access, and user experience. Then, why not healthcare? The future of Big Data is promising- the analytics market in healthcare is projected to grow from $7 billion in 2016 to $24 billion in the next five years and tapping Big Data could offer several more possibilities.

For years we have known and experienced the negative impacts of delayed and inaccurate information transfer. The reasons could be many- lack of continuity, fragmented systems, different data standards- owing to which the news of a patient’s medical encounter may take some time to reach the provider, if it ever does. Stepping up, the international standards development organization, Health Level 7 (HL7) came up with ADT – Admit, Discharge and Transfer feeds to establish patient data notification services.

Today we would like to have all our health information at our fingertips. Just like the access to emails, calendar, maps, etc., it would be awesome if we also had a similar arrangement to view our cholesterol levels, insulin, and other vitals on the fly.