Data is the New Oil, Why Big Data’s Time is Now for Home Healthcare

We are not the first to say “Data is the new oil”, and we won’t be the last. As the cost of data storage shrinks, the amount of data created by the digital economy is growing at exponential speed.

Many industries are leveraging this new resource to uncover knowledge that would have been impossible, let alone imagine before the advent of the “big data era”.

Aside from academia, web companies and some specific industries such as telecommunication, finance and insurance, most of the world is lagging at capturing the value that lays in front of them.

The healthcare sector is no different. Challenged by computing power and a lack of data scientists to help make sense of the data.

That said, the healthcare industry is at an inflection point where it NEEDS to start using any and all data available to compensate for the increasing cost pressure and provide the care patients require.

Initiatives such as the Health Data Initiative (HDI) demonstrates a willingness of having a more connected and open world in terms of patient health data.

Electronic Health Records (EHR) are becoming more common and used. McKinsey reported that in 2005, about 30 percent of office-based physicians and hospitals in the US used EHR. In 2011, this number rose to more than 50% for physicians and more than 75% for hospitals[1].

By leveraging this newly available data, home healthcare agencies can become more efficient by providing better adapted care to its patients.

Who will reap the reward of the big data revolution in home healthcare agencies?

AlayaCare believes that the winners will be the agencies that will use big data based early warning systems to go from fee-for-service to outcome base reimbursement.

Accountable Care organizations will become the leaders of tomorrow by providing non-intrusive 24/7 patient monitoring that will help keep the patient safe at home and outside of hospitals.

AlayaCare provides the tools required for home healthcare agencies to use big data to their advantage. We are looking at how healthcare will be shaped in 2020 and we want to help you transform your business to make the required transition to get there.

[1] Groves, Peter, et al. “The ‘big data’revolution in healthcare.” McKinsey Quarterly (2013).