Big Data to drive reduced healthcare costs and improved quality of care in GCC

The GCC has all of the necessary factors to enable Big Data to launch with success. There are several large healthcare systems and regulators bringing together enormous amounts of data in real time about their patients and populations.  The region also has access to cutting edge IT and mobile technologies to collect and manage the data.  More importantly, it is equipped with the tools and growing talent to perform analytics in the healthcare sector.

A panel of international and regional experts will highlight the global outcomes of implementing Big Data in healthcare during the Big Data Conference at the 39th Arab Health Exhibition & Congress from 28-29 January 2014 at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre.

There is a worldwide divide between laboratory scientists who continuously produce new research findings and medical professionals in their clinical settings who need to be aware of these results. The same applies to patient medical records that need to be accessible across a number of specialties. This divide is more pronounced in the developing world due to the lack of conscious effort to translate research findings into clinical practice through analytics.  Bridging this gap through sharing the latest health information will have a positive impact on patients and can even be lifesaving.

According to Daniel Whitehead, MENA Healthcare Lead, Booz Allen Hamilton, “Using data analytics on electronic health records in real time can offer enormous benefits for patients in this region. For example, predictive analytics can be used to identify which patients are more at risk of life threatening complications in the ER.  Moreover, in the management of chronic diseases using mobile monitoring applications, Big Data can help identify which behaviours are associated with negative outcomes and which interventions are most effective.”

 “There has been a lot of buzz around the potential for ‘Big Data' to enable better decision making,” says Mike Swinford, CEO, GE Global Healthcare Services. “Adding in human insight and process control with analytical structures is what GE calls the ‘Industrial Internet'; Intelligent Machines – Intelligent Information – Intelligent People.  This is what the Industrial Internet is all about.  In healthcare, this strategic approach is a way to drive optimisation of assets, reduce operational inefficiencies and improve clinical quality, all while reducing costs.”

According to Dr Abdul Rezzak Hamzeh, Senior Scientific Coordinator, Centre for Arab Genomic Studies, Dubai, UAE, “A working example of using Big Data in healthcare in the GCC is through the CTGA (Catalogue for Transmission Genetics in Arabs) database at the Centre for Arab Genomic Studies in Dubai. The CTGA database is the largest ethnic-based genetic database worldwide and it currently hosts a collection of over 1600 records of genetic disorders and their related genes. These records provide good quality coverage of both clinical and molecular aspects of the genetic

disorder, and more importantly they offer comprehensive and updated coverage of research results on these disorders in Arab populations.”