Technology
It came as little surprise to the researchers that the map showed clusters of obese and diabetic patients in areas that had more fast food restaurants and fewer parks . With this insight , the health system could design a targeted patient education campaign about healthy eating , provide incentives to join local gyms to encourage fitness or partner with local farms to establish farmer ’ s markets to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables .
How business intelligence is applied to big data and is only limited by the creativity of the researchers using the tools and the problems that they are seeking to solve .
This could range from understanding utilization of drugs or medical devices across a region ’ s hospitals to reduce variation and costs ; developing social programs to educate at-risk citizens ; or using predictive analytics to model public health threats from infection rates , social networks , location and environmental data to plan disaster response . It can also overlay which supplies and processes lead to better outcomes , optimal staffing levels and management of energy resources .
‘ By applying analytics that combine disparate sources of data from electronic health records … we can gain new insight to solve problems ’
In the United Kingdom , Leeds Teaching Hospitals has been testing a syndrome-surveillance proof of concept as an early outbreak predictor to support emergency preparedness and service planning . Leeds generates up to half a million records
34 September 2014