How to Use Big Data to Improve Patient Engagement

Patient engagement remains an elusive goal in the healthcare industry, wrote Dr. William Disch, director of analytics at Evariant, in an article on DataInformed.com. But big data analytics can help, particularly with chronically ill patients.

Because this population also has a problem with compliance regarding medications and other health maintenance issues, it’s particularly important to use technology to help these patients.

Health care providers can use big data insights to identify people who have chronic illnesses and help them to receive the information they need in order to stay healthy.

One way to accomplish this, Dr. Disch wrote, is to use analytics to deliver personalized messaging to chronically ill patients via their preferred communication channels.

Big data analytics can help health care providers to be aware of each patient’s journey and provide targeted and relevant communication, thereby reducing the health risks associated with missing appointments and noncompliance with treatment plans or medications.

A problem that health care professionals have when they try to gather big data analytics is finding the right technology to aggregate and store data from a variety of different sources.

Dr. Disch advised that data lakes, a type of data hub that permits the same data to be used in different scenarios, can give providers a 360-degree view of each patient that will help to provide targeted communications.

By providing a personalized engagement plan utilizing big data analytics, health care professionals can limit non-adherence, build trust, and improve patients’ participation in their health management.

Dr. Disch’s article originally appeared on Data Informed.