Healthcare Analytics: Applications and Challenges

Abstract

Present day decision making in healthcare has become a data-intensive process leading to the rise of healthcare
analytics. These analytics involve the integration and analysis of data collected from multiple heterogenous
sources including biomedical data (electronic health records), experimental (R&D) data, patient lifestyle and
behavior data (store records, social media, wearable electronic devices etc) and financial data. Healthcare
analytics is further being transformed by the application of current - omics technologies (genomics,
epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, pharmacogenomics etc), shifting healthcare to a
system that is “predictive, preventive, participatory, and personalized”, referred to as the P4 medicine
paradigm. The omics revolution is generating a huge amount of data that needs to be collected, stored,
transformed, analyzed and ultimately delivered in a format that is understandable to the clinicians. Properly
applied, healthcare analytics provide actionable insights that can lead to improvement in healthcare
management and delivery, clinical outcomes, health policies and allocation of health resources to communities
in need.

Medical institutions worldwide are facing many challenges. There is a shortage of trained human resource,
patients are more demanding and regulators are becoming more stringent. The healthcare systems are under
pressure to provide better and safer healthcare that is also more cost-effective. This is leading to the
development of a whole new healthcare analytics industry to capture, store and analyze big data for healthcare
providers, health system leaders, and those in government health and human services to improve healthcare
delivery and outcomes. A report by McKinsey Global Institute published in 2011 estimated that if US healthcare
were to use big data creatively and effectively, the sector could create more than $300 billion in value every
year.¹

While innovative new technologies and platforms are making it possible to capture vast amounts of
information of individual patient over a large timescale, a large amount of data remains underutilized and
wasted. It is estimated that healthcare providers discard around 90% of the data that they produce.¹ One of the
greatest challenges in healthcare analytics is harvesting the data from multiple complex and heterogenous
sources spread across different healthcare systems, health insurers, scientists, government bodies etc. and
transforming it to generate meaningful information. Moreover, the personal and financial data and medical
records of patients required to contribute to effective analytical platforms may be confidential and private and
therefore inaccessible. Hospitals are also reluctant to share their financial and clinical audits. There is the issue
also of ownership of the data and in many countries patient data is legally possessed by the patient. Even so the
healthcare industry, slow to transition towards data mining and IT solutions, has now begun to adapt to the
digital data age. Algorithms for collecting, compressing, anonymizing and sharing medical data are being
developed by different groups in addition to various platforms specific to healthcare analytics.

The implementation of healthcare analytics, particularly in developing countries like Pakistan where most
healthcare facilities lack even the most basic form of EHRs is a formidable challenge. Pakistan has a robust IT
community with a special interest and investment by the government sector in IT and Artificial Intelligence
platforms. Pakistan government last year announced seed money of Rs 1.1 billion, to carry out a three-year
project on AI, through the Higher Education Commission to be conducted by six universities. One of these
projects, related to medical imaging and diagnostics, is a step in the right direction. However, we still have a long way to go if we are to reap the benefits of healthcare analytics in Pakistan. There is a need for the involvement and commitment of all stakeholders including healthcare facilities, academicians, researchers and industry etc to contribute to this endeavor. There is no shortage of qualified human resource in the country. All that is required is the will of the health sector to invest in this golden opportunity for healthcare analytics to play a role in improving the delivery of cost-effective care, save lives and define health policies in Pakistan.

Editor-in-Chief 

How to cite this: Alamgir W, Mohyuddin A . Healthcare Analytics: Applications and Challenges. Life and Science. 2022; 3(3): 97-98. doi: http://doi.org/10.37185/LnS.1.1.263