The expansion of health IT has caused an exponential increase in the amount of medical information that is available to providers. Over the last few years, the size and speed of data has grown to the point where it can be mined for useful insight into population health and treatment strategies for individual patients.
In medical imaging, radiation exposure has become an important topic for discussion, as radiologists look for better ways to reduce dosages and repeated exams. Being able to track doses can help protect patients from unhealthy levels of radiation. FierceMedicalImaging reported that the University of Washington School of Medicine has begun taking advantage of big data to limit patient exposure by developing technology that pulls health information from PACS equipment.
Once the data is retrieved, it is sorted into a database where it can be assessed by IT professionals at the facility. According to William Shuman, the medical director at UW, the gleaned information helps validate imaging efforts and determine areas where radiologists could improve their services. For example, the hospital recently began conducting dual-energy CT scans of livers in hope of reducing radiation use. Within 20 seconds of accessing the database, physicians can know that the new procedure implements lower dosages of radiation than single energy exams.
Breaking the mold
Previously, efforts to mine data from PACS could take weeks to produce useful information because it was stored in disparate databases that were not connected to one another. It was difficult to make sense of the information, and better analytics were needed to improve the process. Today, the technology designed by UW has been integral to reducing radiation exposure and could become a model for endeavors outside the facility’s walls.
“It helps us see whether our exams are within certain ranges that are acceptable,” said Katherine Andriole, professor and director of imaging informatics at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, quoted by FierceMedicalImaging. “And if we see a bump in that curve we can drill down into specific exams and see what happened.”
Diving into big data
Of all health IT, electronic health records have had the biggest impact on the rise of big data in health care. When mined successfully, it can save providers money and make considerable contributions to medical research and treatments.
According to InformationWeek, wearable devices could add extra depth to big data, with spending on data collection for this technology expected to reach $52 million by 2019. While this may seem like an innovation only available to larger health systems, partnerships and collaborations can allow smaller organizations to leverage big data, too.
“Earlier, data warehousing and analytics was restricted to larger organizations because it was cost prohibitive. What big data has done has brought it down to smaller [organizations]. But the biggest challenge with these smaller markets and mid-tier organizations is resources. Cloud is becoming very prevalent. They are going to store a lot of data in the cloud. They will outsource a lot of that data to the cloud,” said Manmeet Singh, co-founder and CEO of Dataguise, quoted by InformationWeek.
In a recent PwC study, 95 percent of responding CEOs in health care reported that they were examining better ways to manage and utilize big data in their facilities. With the industry moving toward value-based payment models, providers require more information than ever before to properly manage risk and treat patients. Being able to access a range of sources can lead to considerable gains in the future of health management.
Contact Viztek for more information.
Latest posts by Steve Deaton (see all)
- Practice Better Radiology to Avoid Malpractice Lawsuits - July 16, 2014
- Medical Imaging Data Can Help Improve the Patient Experience - June 19, 2014
- Replace Outdated PACS Systems to Experience Cost Savings in Imaging - June 16, 2014
0
0
0
