Big Data: A New Focal Point Of Healthcare And Life Sciences

Introduction

Imagine a world in which one can not retain any data and forgets everything after 24 hours. Do you think such a world would be worth living in? How would people make accurate and wise decisions when they don’t have enough knowledge of a particular subject in their mind?

Therefore, the importance of big data is indisputable. It is important to have enough data to ensure data-driven decisions. But gathering data alone is not enough,   we also require tools and software to convert that data into useful information. Because data is useful only when it is easily comprehensible.

Retrospectively, every firm and company has always considered data significant for improving and optimizing business processes. Even successful companies use data to strategize and decide their direction. Therefore, it is important to note that nowadays, Data has become not only important but also has to be urgently available.

Big Data In Healthcare And Life Sciences

In the age of information technology, every individual is producing bulks of data by using the internet and social media. It is prime for leading companies to use powerful tools and software to convert data into useful information. AmidCOVID-19 pandemic, the importance of Big Data has increased manifold because most companies moved digital.

Public and private sector organizations operating specifically in the public health and life sciences arena faced a new urgency to manage and report on data in a timely and accurate manner. The findings of NewVantage Partner’s Annual Big Data and AI Executive Survey construe how big data is being used in the healthcare sector to mobilize resources prudently.

Most people believe that financial services take the most benefit from data. However, the survey of C-Executives posited that circa 41% of healthcare and life sciences companies are using big data whereas only 17.9% of financial services companies have created data-driven organizations.

Similarly, another finding revealed that only 38.8% of financial services firms are using it as their critical and important factor. However, 57.1% of healthcare and social sciences firms treat data as a very important factor and focus on data-driven innovation.

The increasing focus of healthcare and social firms in data science is also increasing the levels of investment. As per reports, every other life sciences firm is increasingly investing in data as compared to 22.4% of financial services firms. Because it is important to develop powerful tools to get useful and timely insights into the data available. The cliche, big data is better data, is pragmatic only in that context.

These stats and facts represent nothing but the increasing demand for data-driven applications. From agriculture to healthcare to pharmaceuticals, no matter the industry, the applications of big data are widely present. In the recent outbreak of COVID-19, data proved highly useful in identifying non-vaccinated people and tracing them. Moreover, to keep a continuous eye on the dispersal of covid-19 vaccines,  data proved very useful.

As reported by Bloomberg, the developed countries are getting vaccines more often than the under-developed and developing countries. The study also reported that the wealthiest countries in the world were getting vaccinated 25 times faster.

The bottom line is: almost every possible sector is using big data increasingly. This is the reason that the market size of big data is estimated to reach $234.6 billion by the end of 2026, as identified by Global Industry Analysts Inc., (GIA). The major reason for its inculcation is the benefits that big data provides. The benefits of big data include cost-effectiveness, efficiency, improved marketing, informed and better decision-making, and so on.

At the same time, there are some challenges along the way as well. These challenges include a lack of data scientists, a lack of understanding of the bulk of data, growth issues, security issues, etc. The privacy concern is a very prime concern and the scrutiny of Facebook in this regard is one fine example.

However, the benefits and need for big data overshadow the concerns that it contains. The increasing trend of big data denotes that its market will further boom in the coming years. This is the reason that it has become one of the top 10 technologies to learn in 2021.