Big data: A revolution in the health care industry

Data has become the key to staying competitive in today's global economy. Managing the three Vs of big data like volume, velocity and variety is a big challenge for the organizations. Gone are the days of data collected exclusively in electronic health records and other structured formats. Increasingly, the data is in multimedia format and unstructured. The paper analyses the role of big data in the health care industry whereby most of the hospitals are surviving only because they are paid for the treatment done and, not for the results, so to establish themselves and to be known for their treatments, they have to make the system better by paying for results, rather than paying for procedures and this can be done through big data's. The trend with new models, including accountable care organizations (ACO), is to incent and compensate providers to keep patients healthy. At the same time, patients are increasingly demanding information about their healthcare options so that they understand their choices and can participate in decisions about their care. Patients are an important element in keeping healthcare costs down and improving outcomes. BCBS (Blue Cross and Blue Shield) is taking steps to employ the use of Big Data to help prevent 1-million heart attacks by 2017. The data have been collected from various sources and analyzed. The conclusion of the paper is that big data play a prominent role in providing patients with accurate and up-to-date information and guidance rather than just data that will help them make better decisions and adhere to treatment process.