The internet is a powerful tool, no matter what it’s being used for. Going forward, it’s going to play an increasingly important role across all industries, but it is going to be particularly important in the health industry. The stakes in healthcare are higher and more personal than they are in any other industry. Healthcare providers need to use every tool available to them, and that absolutely includes online data gathering and analysis.
Ease of Access
Having health data available online and securely accessible benefits healthcare providers as well as patients. Patients who can access reliable health information online wherever and whenever they like are more likely to be aware of their health. It makes it possible for some healthcare tools to be more widely and easily accessible, and it also means that healthcare providers will have more complete records.
Rapid Responses
In addition to ease of access, online data also allows for rapid responses. Instead of waiting for the information to be couriered over, it can be instantly accessed by whoever needs it. Of course the need for rapidity and ease of access must be balanced with the need for security and privacy, especially with regards to the healthcare industry. One cannot deny, however, that there is absolutely a need for responsiveness in healthcare.
Data Gathering
Health is a complicated matter with a thousand variables that interact in complex and unpredictable ways. The broader you can cast a net of information gathering, the more accurate your diagnoses will be. Online data gathering techniques allow for a potentially infinitely broad net to be cast, looking at everything from items purchased to searches made.
Analysis
The other side of that data gathering coin is that when you have a huge amount of data and variables interacting complexly, analysis becomes an incredibly difficult and complicated task. With the advent of online data gathering and web scraping, you have a potentially huge amount of data to analyze, more than one person could ever hope to come to terms with. The internet can allow for that task to be spread among many people, or even partially automated.
Automation
Online data also allows for certain processes to be automated, which can ease the strain on personnel. Some automation can be a powerful tool to make diagnoses faster and provide better healthcare, but it must also be noted that some functions cannot and should not be automated. When automation empowers patients and providers to do more good, that’s wonderful, but automation cannot replace good human judgement.
Trends
One aspect where analysis and automation can be broadly useful is in looking at trends, especially trends over time. The human brain is naturally pattern seeking, and will sometimes fabricate a trend where no trend exists, so it’s important to have a broad and more impartial system for gathering information and making analyses. The ability to gather data on trends is particularly important for healthcare providers because it empowers them to make predictions.
Predictions
The ability to take data and make projections can literally be the difference between life and death in the healthcare industry. Hypothetically, with enough information and the correct calculations, you can predict, for example, how bad the flu season is likely to be this year. Forewarned is forearmed after all, and is particularly important when you need to have at least a ballpark notion of how many vaccines you will need to have available, when, and where.
Online data gathering is a powerful tool when applied sensitively and thoughtfully. It can provide ease of access for providers and patients, allow for rapid responses, facilitate better data gathering and analyses with automation, and empower healthcare providers to analyze trends and make predictions. Of course, all those benefits must be weighed and balanced against the risks of security breaches and confidentiality issues, but in the end, the question isn’t whether the health industry will use online data, but how they should use online data.
