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Healthcare data and Analytics

The healthcare sector is seeing immense growth worldwide, and the USA is no exception to the phenomena. Healthcare takes more than 10% of the GDP of most developed countries. In fact, for the USA, this figure will be close to 18% by the end of 2019. This isn’t surprising—the healthcare sector is the USA’s largest employer. Incidentally, the US spends considerably more than the world’s average on healthcare.’

 

The USA has the most outstanding healthcare spending, which was already sitting at $10,224 per capita in 2019 that rose even more in 2020.There were 784,626 companies in the USA healthcare sector, and more have cropped up due to pandemics. USA Spending on healthcare was already past the 3.6 trillion dollars mark in 2019. Opportunity in a large part of this trillion-dollar industry still remains unexplored.

 

In the past, the healthcare industry has been slow to adopt new technologies. But now, more and more providers are adopting technology to increase efficiency and cut costs. This is a great time for data-driven innovation in healthcare!

 

As the healthcare industry transitions towards a more data-driven system, organizations are increasingly looking for reliable healthcare data providers to help them manage and analyze their data. With the rise of technology, there has been a significant increase in interest and investment in healthcare provider data.

 

Health data is any data relating to the health of an individual patient or collective population. This information is gathered from a series of health information systems (HIS) and other technological tools utilized by health care professionals, insurance companies and government organizations.

 

Data Analytics is the process of examining raw datasets to find trends, draw conclusions and identify the potential for improvement. Health care analytics uses current and historical data to gain insights, macro and micro, and support decision-making at both the patient and business level.

 

We are able to see a holistic view of each individual patient as well as trends tied to location, socioeconomic status, race and predisposition. The information being collected can be broken down into specific datasets that can then be analyzed.

 

The use of health data analytics allows for improvements to patient care, faster and more accurate diagnoses, preventive measures, more personalized treatment and more informed decision-making. At the business level, it can lower costs, simplify internal operations and more.

 

Healthcare data is useful for healthcare startups, established corporations, and pharmaceutical companies for numerous reasons. It’s a powerful tool that offers them insights and helps them identify the needs within a customer or physician segment, and target geographical areas.

 

Numerous industries and organizations utilize health data and require the help of health data analysts. These include: Hospitals, private or public, Government health care departments, Diagnostic centers, Health insurance companies, Health care consulting companies, Large medical practices, Health IT vendors, Other health organizations

 

There are a variety of tools and systems used to collect, store, share and analyze health data gathered through various means. These tools include: Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Personal Health Records (PHRs), Electronic Prescription Services (E-prescribing), Patient Portals, Master Patient Indexes (MPI), Health-Related Smart Phone Apps and more.

 

With digital data collection, there is more and more health care data to be analyzed every second. With the increase of electronic record keeping, applications and other electronic means of data collection and storage, there is a significant amount of data being collected in real time.

 

These data sets are so complex that traditional processing software and storage options cannot be used. Cloud storage is a necessity when dealing with “Big Data.” Cloud storage is built to be secure, an absolute must when dealing with sensitive patient information. It is also very cost-efficient and has been helpful in lowering the increasing cost of health care.

 

Healthcare data can be used to develop new products, help with marketing campaigns, improve clinical research efforts by identifying trends in patient populations that are of interest to drug manufacturers or providers of medical devices.

 

Healthcare Analytics Market

The global healthcare analytics market is currently valued at USD 29.1 billion as of 2021 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 21.5% for the forecast period 2022-2030. The healthcare industry on the whole has been challenged with the issues like lack of better patient care, skyrocketing costs of treatment, less patient retention, and engagement and, thus healthcare analytics are being incorporated into every aspect of the industry to give better care to patients and for better operations of the industry. These factors are key reasons for the growth of the healthcare analytics industry.

 

The rapid rate of technological advancements and massive investments by the healthcare industry into the IT development and digitization have been key factors for the monumental growth of the healthcare analytics industry. The analytical platforms which are currently being deployed by healthcare institutions across the globe, help in patient management, their retention, due to which better care can be delivered. Deployment of healthcare analytical platforms not only increases the productivity of the staff, but the overall patient management has been improved and the burden on caregivers has been minimized.

 

Healthcare analytics can be deployed for various functions in an establishment, for management of grants and donations given to the hospital, patient records, making appointments, for insurance claims, etc. It can not only improve the quality of care delivered to patients but also give insights for managing overall business establishments, better patient outreach, management of spread of diseases etc. The Grainger College of Engineering, Illinois, developed the Health Data Analytics Initiative as a hub connecting clinical investigators, engineers, AI experts, and data scientists which help in delivering better solutions by improving the quality of research by deploying AI platforms and analytical tools.

 

Government initiatives and massive flux of money in the healthcare industry are also driving innovation and are responsible for increase in adoption of such analytical platforms by healthcare establishments. Analytical platforms are not only being used by hospitals but other establishments for managing and interpreting clinical data from various studies being conducted; studying historical data and analyzing it to establish trends, developing methods, tools and technologies to get optimal results. These analytics platforms are also being deployed by policy makers for studying statistics and models for making better decisions and policies regarding healthcare establishments and for delivering care to patients. U.S. government has been taking initiatives in this direction like HealthData.gov portal has information from several federal databases on topics such as community health performance, clinical data, medical and scientific knowledge for developers which is accessible by application programming interface.

 

Impact of Covid

Big data and health data analytics have played an integral role in the fight against COVID-19. The data is coming in at a near constant rate. Analyzing that health data has allowed for a better understanding of how to respond and treat patients

 

COVID-19 pandemic saw significant growth in the industry due to increase in the need for digital solutions and better analytics tools to manage the patient load on the healthcare industry as a whole. The amount of clinical data generated during the pandemic needed proper management and with the help of analytics tools and platforms, the researchers and professionals were able to derive better outcomes, predict trends and understand the dynamics of spread of disease much better.

 

The rising importance of predictive analytics

The descriptive analysis type had the largest market share of 37.1% in 2021. Descriptive analytics uses historical data to draw comparisons or discover patterns. This type of analysis is best for answering questions about what has already occurred. We can gain insight into the past with descriptive analytics.

 

Descriptive analytics has been widely used during the pandemic to study historical data and patient histories to study the spread of virus, which has been a key factor driving growth in this segment. Descriptive analytics has proved to be a valuable tool in understanding what happened by accessing historical data and turning it into actionable insights. It is also being used by hospitals to monitor performance of insurance claims by detecting irregularities and errors in the claims. The descriptive analysis tools are being used by a rising number of organizations to increase market growth potential.

 

Not only does the data help improve day-to-day operations and better patient care, it can now be better used in predictive modeling. Instead of just looking at historical information or current information, we can use both datasets to track trends and make predictions. We are now able to take preventive measures and track the outcomes.

 

The fee-for-service style of health care is becoming a thing of the past. There is a growing demand for patient-centric, or value-based, medical care which has led to a considerable shift towards predictive and preventive measures in regards to public health in recent years. Data makes this possible. Instead of simply treating the symptoms as they present, practitioners are able to identify patients at high risk of developing chronic illnesses and help to treat an issue before it surfaces. This helps to lower costs for the practitioner, insurance company and patient as the preventive treatment may help to stave off long-term issues and expensive hospitalizations.

 

If hospitalization is necessary, data analytics can help practitioners predict risks of infection, deterioration and readmission. This too can help lower costs and improve patient care outcomes.

 

Predictive analysis was the fastest-growing analytics type due to the fact that it uses data sets created by using descriptive analytics by analyzing data for actionable future insights. More and more companies are adopting analytics for better growth prospects have been key propellants for growth of this segment. It has become a necessity to adopt these platforms to predict future trends in the market for the company to take an appropriate measures which foster overall growth.

 

Prescriptive analytics will also make predictions about future outcomes. Machine learning is a big factor with this type of analytics. The information provided can help determine the best course of action. We can gain insight on what course of action should be taken to reach the most ideal outcome with prescriptive analytics.

 

Component Insights

The largest component in the healthcare analytics was the services segment with a market share of 37.1% as of 2021. The healthcare industry has been investing substantial amount of capital in the IT industry for the development of platforms, digitization of data for analytics. The majority of the companies do not have a data analytics component in their companies due to which they are outsourcing the data analytics aspect of their IT. This has resulted in the growth of the data analytics companies offering a complete set of services to companies. The increase in services offered by the data analytics companies have been responsible for the growth in this segment.

The fastest-growing component type was also services, due to the increase in the patient load on the health industry, increase in disease prevalence etc. has resulted in massive amounts of clinical data generated, the insurmountable pressure on the industry to give better care, better results and cost-effective treatments to patients is further propelling this market towards growth. The need for adoption of analytical methods and tools for better patient monitoring, delivering better treatments etc. are key factors for the growth of this segment.

Delivery Mode Insights

The largest market share of 49.3% was held by on-premises delivery mode in 2021. Majority of institutions are currently installing software and tools to store data at their own premises due to ease of access and security, resulting in the large market share of this type of delivery. Current systems in small organizations are practical, but when scaled up it can be difficult and cumbersome to manage data if the organization is dealing with a large dataset. This can mean large capital investment in storage and security of data.

The fastest growing delivery mode has been cloud based due to ease of storage, less capital investment, and increased flexibility and efficiency, these factors also add up to continuous growth in this delivery mode. Cloud based storage can also be on-premises, but the issue of scalability comes into picture, even though public cloud storage solutions are a key factor for the growth of cloud-based storage solutions becoming the fastest growing sub-segment, limitations of the same include less privacy, more security concerns regarding loss of data. 

Application Insights

The largest market share of 35.7% was held by financial applications in 2021. The healthcare institutions and organizations are continually striving to minimize cost of treatment, yet delivering better care to patients, this has been the reason for growth of this segment. The financial aspect of management still accounts for the largest share so that the companies perform better by reducing costs and prevention of frauds.

Healthcare institutions incur costs in the form of insurance claims which can also be fraudulent, to mitigate such risks and to minimize such occurrences the healthcare organizations deploy analytical tools for predictive and descriptive analysis to deliver better care to patients as well as reduce overall costs of operations and minimal frauds in insurance claims. The need to perform financially well has been a key driver for the adoption of this application type. 

End-Use Insights

In 2021, the largest market share of 48% was held by life science companies. Currently, the largest users of analytical tools and platforms are the life-science companies for reducing costs of their products, increasing profit margins, and producing better products, which are driving faster adoption and growth in the segment. The companies are constantly investing money in improving their product portfolios, and offerings to cater to a wider population. This gives rise to the need of analytical tools to better understand and predict the market and also drive value-based decisions.

The fastest growth was registered by the healthcare providers, this is due to the fact that during the pandemic and even after that, the burden of delivering cost-effective care, better patient management has been tremendous on the hospitals and healthcare professionals, this has resulted in the growth of this end user segment. The need to manage patient records, disease surveillance, and deliver cost-effective care to patients have been key factors for the wider adoption of healthcare analytics and is foreseen to propel growth in the segment.

 

Regional Insights

North America had the largest market share of 49.8% as of 2021. The region has state-of-the-art healthcare facilities with the adoption of these platforms and better technological availability have all resulted in the large market share for North America. It is primarily due to the development and evolution of healthcare facilities, the rising prevalence of chronic diseases, the growing geriatric population, technological advancements, the growing adoption of analytical solutions, and the presence of key market players. Microsoft launched Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare which will be a collaboration between patients and providers to help deliver better insights related to patient care.

 

The fastest-growing market was the Asia-Pacific, fast development, more spending capacity, and growing population have all resulted in the fast growth registered by APAC. There have been significant growth and advancements in the industry in this region, which has also contributed to its growth. The reliance of consumers and healthcare providers on IT has been increasing thus the adoption rates of the analytics sector have also gone up. Australia-based start-up for healthcare analytics Prospection has opened an office in Japan and will be collaborating with international pharma customers to develop new treatments for the Japanese population.

Key Companies and Market Share Insights

Key players in the industry are constantly innovating and bringing up new technologies to better understand data derived from patient information, understand the spread and containment of the disease, etc. to deliver better care solutions to healthcare providers and institutions. The use of big data analytics and AI has also given rise to new platforms being made to better understand and analyze data. Swedish Health Services, a U.S.-based healthcare organization has developed a platform for healthcare workers where they can report real-time data on COVID-19 patient volumes, and other parameters to track the status of facilities across hospitals.

 

Some of the prominent players in the global healthcare analytics players include McKesson Corporation, Optum, Inc., IBM, Oracle, SAS Institute, Inc., IQVIA, Verisk Analytics, Inc., Elsevier, Medeanalytics, Inc., Truven Health Analytics, Inc., Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc., Cerner Corporation, Xerox, Epic System Corporation, GE Healthcare, Dell, McKesson, Philips, Cognizant, Siemens, Optum, Cerner Corporation

 

 

References and Resources also include:

https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/healthcare-analytics-market

https://online.shrs.pitt.edu/blog/data-analytics-in-health-care/

About Rajesh Uppal

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