From Healthcare to Hospitality: How Big Data Transforms Industry

Big Data, once a looming anomaly for many businesses, has transformed. No longer a buzzword, it is essential to enterprises everywhere – from healthcare to hospitality. Whilst it’s taken about a decade to get here, the last two years are truly telling. 

With the amount of Data flowing through our systems, over 2 quintillion bytes each day. Think Apple Pay at Starbucks, credit card purchase, filling out of forms, GPS, our phone Data, traffic cameras and lights for traffic control. Big data is now big business.

Top Industries Using Big Data and Analytics

While the most prevalent industries which come to mind are retail, entertainment, and politics. There are two which, until now, have been coming in under the radar and have seen some of the biggest changes using Data & Analytics; healthcare and hospitality. Whilst they don’t seem to go together, they do have one thing in common – the experience.

Hospitality 

As you plan for your next vacation, you may be debating the merits of a hotel reservation versus an AirBnB. Lodging options in the share-economy have forced traditional accommodation options to rethink their strategies. The ease of “mobile first” which allows customers to manage their bookings, stays, and travel experience through their phones is in direction opposition to the client-facing hotel industry. 

There is a massive shift happening in this industry and a powerful Data Analytics tool can help create visualisations from a company’s Data. Not only can these provide insights for the future, but they also offer suggestions for strategies which can be implemented now to impact future prospects.

Healthcare 

One of the most telling industries being transformed by Big Data is healthcare. Access to care is not only available in-office, in-person, but now with the advent of Telemedicine, patients can get questions even more quickly. No matter the industry today, this is a buyer’s market, or in most cases, a customer’s market. And its customer satisfaction which drives the success of a business. In healthcare, it’s patient satisfaction.

Patient satisfaction scores underlies everything from hospital funding to the return visits in the private sector. Like any business, the patient experience in the healthcare industry, begins with initial contact, staff responsiveness, communication by doctors and nurses, wait times, even equipment and cleanliness of facilities to name a few examples. Once all the Data and information is gathered, collected, and analysed, these healthcare professionals are able to make any necessary adjustments.

As quickly as Data has grown in the last couple of years, the projections for healthcare can expect to see a high volume in the next seven years. One of the highest benefits which can add to patient experience is the database of patient’s information can be shared across healthcare organisations saving time, money, and patient stress which all leads to better treatment for the patient’s needs. 

In fact, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC), healthcare Data is expected to grow faster than industries such as the media, manufacturing, or financial services. Advancements such as chatbots, virtual assistants, Big Data Analytic tools, and medical imaging have all added to the transformation. 

As strong and as prevalent as many of these advances are, many organisations still struggle to find the right candidates with the right Data skill sets. Many have neither a blockchain strategy nor have plans to implement one and are falling behind. There is a next generation opportunity here to more fully transform digitally, but the right people need to be in place to make it happen.

Digital transformation isn’t slowing down and is becoming more critical at a rapid rate. By making investments in your health IT, analytics tools, and people, you’ll be ready to close the digital transformation gap.

If you’re interested in Big Data and Analytics with an eye toward the Life Sciences field, we may have a role for you. Check out our current vacancies or get in touch with one of our expert consultants to learn more. 

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