Since the last decade, big data analytics is slowly finding applications across multiple industries including healthcare. With a massive amount of patient data generated on a daily basis, the healthcare industry has a lot of potentials to use big data analytics’ predictive capability. This can help in predicting and preventing the outbreak of epidemics. Moreover, the use of big data analytics in the healthcare industry can bring down costs considerably and improve the quality of healthcare provided to patients. Here are a few ways in which the healthcare industry can use big data analytics to provide efficient services.

Identification of patients who are at a high risk
Often many healthcare facilities find that a large number of patients come into the emergency department over and over again.

Prevention of errors related to incorrect medications
One of the major problems in the healthcare sector is related to incorrect medications. A human error related to picking the wrong medication for a patient may lead to harmful consequences or even death.

Improvement in patient engagement
The number of patients opting for medical wearables is steadily on the rise. These wearables are physician aids that help in keeping track of heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, number of steps taken, and other health-related data. This data can be fed to the cloud, which can be then analyzed using big data analytics. This will help physicians monitor a patient’s health remotely and reduce the number of patient visits. The patient will become more independent and engaged in their healthcare.

Prevention of data and security breach
It has been observed that the healthcare is highly susceptible to data breaches. This is because healthcare systems contain personal data, which has high value. Big data analytics come with strong protection features, which can help in the prevention of security threats and data breaches.