Page 51 - Big Data Analytics for Intelligent Healthcare Management

CHAPTER

BIG DATA ANALYTICS IN

HEALTHCARE: A CRITICAL 3

ANALYSIS

Dibya Jyoti Bora
School of Computing Sciences, Kaziranga University, Jorhat, India

3.1 INTRODUCTION
The enormous increase in data in different disciplines, such as internet, business, and finance, con-
tributes to the development of big data. But currently healthcare units are also gradually becoming an
important discipline where there is a big scope for big data development. In US nonfederal acute care
hospitals, most of them are adopting basic automated healthcare record systems [1, 2]. Nowadays,
technology such as the internet-of-things, makes it possible to collect personal health data from mil-
lions of consumers in an increasing trend. For example, wearable fitness trackers and health apps on
smartphones are examples of such devices [1]. So data grows in an enormous way, even in a single
institution. And such institutions exist in a vast number in the United States. If we talk about the
whole world, then this number will increase dramatically. The generation of big data is taking place
in medical healthcare units. In healthcare units, big data is concerned with some important datasets
that are considerably too big, too fast, and too complex for healthcare suppliers to use with their
existing tools. Medical images are the most important and sensitive parts of these datasets. These
images are used for many important decisions by physicians about the status of the patient’s disease.
These big datasets contain both structured and unstructured data. Therefore a proper prediction of
disease needs a comprehensive approach where structured and unstructured data coming from both
clinical and nonclinical resources are exploited for a better perception of the disease state. The big
data scientists are always trying to discover the associations and hidden patterns among these
big medical data so that an improved care and treatment program can be devised for patients by mak-
ing a more accurate decision about the patient’s disease and thereby saving lives and also lessening
the costs of treatments.
Now, how to define big data. Section 3.2 below gives a brief introduction to big data.

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Big Data Analytics for Intelligent Healthcare Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818146-1.00003-9
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