Can we know the future of healthcare?
Knowing the future sounds impossible. It is, without proper tools and data. Without them, it’s like going to a fortuneteller and asking for advice. You can by chance get useful insights. But basing it on a life-and-death decision would be really dangerous. The future needs of healthcare at first glance look like something almost impossible to predict. With numerous factors influencing its state now. And even more contributing to its future conditions.
It’s Datali’s pleasure to share: yes, you can actually tell the future. Or at least the future of medical needs in swiss regions. What’s more, you don’t have to stop there. Knowing the future spread of a disease, you can take the right actions. To put it more straightforwardly - you can save many lives by simply being prepared.
Data to rescue the healthcare system
The right data helps you to see the right things. Datali’s team decided to take the most out of data on healthcare needs and the system in Switzerland. The goal was simple: automate and improve processes in the healthcare industry.
No matter who you are, you need a well-functioning healthcare system to treat you well.
The results of our work? The true mine of information that we used to map the current situation and predict the future.
It all started with asking the right questions: what can we get from publicly available data? What’s out there? How can we use it? This is what the exploratory phase is all about. Digging deep, gathering pieces of information until it’s time for the next steps. Then you go from exploring to designing and implementing the tools.
Exploring what data can tell
Firstly, we dived into available data to assess what kind of algorithms can be designed. We wanted to know what information was out there, and what insights we could draw. As it turned out, the possibilities were impressive.
It started by asking about location: which regions suffer most from the given disease? From that, we went on to analyse risk factors. For instance, which age groups have the highest risk of catching the given disease? What other factors contribute to the given disease? It all enabled us to go from the past to the present, and then to the future. It showed the possible time evolution of diseases, such as cardiac diseases.
From Data to Healthcare Assessment
The second part was to focus on hospitals and possible treatments. What treatments are most common? What age groups are more likely to have the given treatment? It also included focusing on infrastructure needs, like giving the expected needed number of beds in a given hospital in a couple of years. Gathering the information about hospitals made it possible to estimate numerous indicators, including:
- hospital efficacy, shown by the mortality rates
- hospital quality, measured as the number of patients per doctor, or the percentage of beds occupied
- expected cost of long-term care and expected cost of a stationary stay
It all could serve as valuable markers for healthcare providers, policymakers, insurers and patients.
How knowing the future can serve you?
Knowing it all sounds like a superpower in itself. However, the value of such information comes from its application.
Detecting disease risk factors and prevention
As a healthcare provider, you can intervene to prevent the spread of disease, and save lives. You know what happens thanks to identifying and analyzing places with a high number of diseases.
Reducing costs
By recognizing which procedures or resources are in high demand, hospitals can introduce measures to control expenses and improve efficiency.
Allocating resources efficiently
Knowing that the region is more affected by the disease, you are able to allocate more resources to this region. Think about hiring more specialized medical personnel. You can also provide more medical equipment and treatment options.
Improving the patient's experience and treatment results
Limited infrastructure is one of the factors that drastically lowers patients’ experience. To reduce wait times and improve so-desired access to services, you have to know what’s happening. Only strategic investments can make an impact.
The healthcare system in Switzerland faces the challenge of anticipating and meeting future needs in an ever-changing landscape. Here data, designed algorithms and developed tools can come to the rescue.
This example serves as your data inspiration. It shows how live-changing information for numerous people can be retrieved from data. By leveraging data and advanced predictive modelling, Datali demonstrates how healthcare needs can be forecasted with precision. Through exploratory analysis, machine learning algorithms, and robust data models, we can identify trends. We can analyze risk factors, and predict future healthcare requirements.
But this doesn’t have to be just healthcare.
Wonder what data can do in other industries? Take a look here or simply ask if we can solve your difficulties.
