Streaming Data & IoT Solutions
By the end of the year, the daily volume of data generated by IoT is expected to top 1.6 zettabytes.
If you were to wait and load that in batch once a day, you’d be waiting forever.
But it’s not just readiness for the future that demands a new approach to data integration and analytics in healthcare, it’s the ability to spot a competitive edge when you see it. Consider that the typical healthcare business cycle includes upfront planning for a visit, waiting in the office, waiting for lab results, waiting for treatments to work, multiple serial billing channels, and uncertain long-term outcomes. Some people would argue that real-time and streaming data processing is unnecessary in an industry where such delays are the rule. But in light of this traditionally slow-moving process, any effort to shorten cycle times can have a dramatic impact on business performance.
Solving data streaming and IoT in healthcare requires:
- Architectures, tools and expertise different from a traditional monthly or daily batch data warehouse
- The development of a new mindset to adjust and respond to faster insights and answers
- Reliable and user-friendly systems and processes for data provenance
Data You Didn’t Even Expect
In a traditional data analytics environment, solutions are built based on anticipated questions – sometimes narrowly (a decision support dashboard to guide behavior in specific situations) and sometimes broadly (self-service reporting). In a world where streaming data and IoT are the norm, the types of data and insights to be made are coming just as fast as the new data is. Your new systems and architectures must be able to handle changes and new data sources quickly and on the fly.
Drinking from the Firehose
Batch data processing is like taking large containers of water to the nearest forest fire and pouring it on hotspots to douse them. Streaming data is like being able to rapidly cool every ember as it flies from one tree to the next. Adjusting user mindset to this radical change in the process of receiving data and delivering insights and decision support is an understandably intimidating challenge, but of primary importance in attaining business value. Successfully helping users make the leap requires healthcare experts with a deep understanding of each users’ role and the linkage to higher level business goals.
Don’t Spill a Drop
With all of this streaming data, there are times when only part of it will actually be used and make it into the final analytics. Which data was that? How was it processed? Was it integrated with other pieces of information along the way? Which member or patient does this data belong to? Being able to trust the data all the way from ingest to usage is the responsibility of data provenance.
At Amitech, we think this is achieved by building a level of transparency into your data governance strategy that gives people the intuitive tools they need to develop a sense of ownership over organizational data and their own role in the process.
Healthcare Technology Experts
Given the nuances and complexity of healthcare, one-size-fits-all technology solutions generally don’t cut it. As it relates to streaming data and IoT, there’s no question that healthcare expertise is required to get a workable solution in place. Amitech is equal parts healthcare and technology, with deep expertise in both. Give us a call and discover the difference.
