Connected Health: Defining big data and what it’s good for

BOSTON—Big data have the potential to help improve clinical care, but it will be a while before benefits are realized, according to the panelists of an Oct. 25 presentation at the ninth annual Connected Health Symposium, hosted by Partners HealthCare.

A lot of the big talk about big data is just talk. “Big data are 49 percent real and 51 percent hype,” said Michael Weintraub, MBA, president and CEO of Humedica. He estimated there were maybe 10 companies offering big data services a year ago and approximately 30 as of six months ago. “To those buying big data, buyer beware. Everyone has updated their PowerPoints to become a big data vendor.”

The reality is that it will be a long time before big data turns into actionable information that clinicians can use to improve the care they provide, according to Charlie Baker, MBA, entrepreneur-in-residence at General Catalyst Partners in Cambridge, Mass. Right now, big data are of more use to researchers and policymakers funding research than it is to frontline providers. “Big data to most folks practicing medicine is a great idea, but not something they believe will help them improve quality in the short term.”

Part of the reason it will take so long is because there is so much, but it’s also because the relationship between healthcare stakeholders is complex and “people are complicated,” as Chris Kryder, MD, CEO of D2Hawkeye in Jersey City, N.J., put it. Big data have been used in other industries to learn ways of persuading consumers to behave certain ways. Getting someone to buy a cheeseburger might be easier than getting them to lay off the fast food and check their blood pressure every day.

“Most companies use big data to figure out what you’re like and how to get you to do something,” Baker said. “All the rules that apply to this sort of analysis in most other industries don’t apply the same way to healthcare in terms of behavior modification.”

“It will take much longer in healthcare, cost more and there will be more failure,” added Weintraub. “Those that get, deliver and pay healthcare—it’s a much more complex equation of stakeholders.”

And if policymakers and healthcare professionals are going all in on big data, they might be playing the wrong hand, according to Baker. There are many more basic things that can be done to address rising healthcare costs. "Start with reimbursement models. There’s nothing about big data that is going to solve reimbursement models or delivery of care.”