Why Data is the Future of Healthcare: Advantages and Challenges in 2023

Healthcare is currently going through a great transformation, a paradigm that started to shift at the commencement of the pandemic. Technology was already integrating itself into the medical space slowly and surely, but when COVID-19 entered the picture, the industry accelerated into the digital world in order to continue to care for patients.

According to results from the AMA Digital Health Study 2022, the number of physicians using telehealth grew from 14% in 2016 to 80% in 2022. It was also shown that the growth (usage) of health platforms in 2021 was as high as 37%.This has led to different patient expectations and adaptations for both patients and providers. It has also led to an influx of data for businesses in medicine, which has required its own set of adjustments.

Data can inundate and overwhelm an organization’s systems, and without the proper frameworks can be insight wasted. If utilized, however, data can expand the capabilities of the medical industry, helping both organizations and providers impart better care to patients.

Source Meridian is a future-oriented company that provides its customers in the healthcare and life science industries with “early access to cutting-edge technology”. They help their clients turn data and content into something that can be leveraged. Let’s take a closer look at how data is transforming healthcare, some of the challenges and opportunities, and how this company is helping to set healthcare companies up for success.

Data can Increase Healthcare’s Capabilities 

Functionality has long been a primary focus for hospitals and businesses in medicine, but it means something entirely different in the digital world. Medical data is subject to a myriad of restrictions, regulations, and privacy concerns, and so putting healthcare on the digital interface has had a few road bumps. 

Due to its sensitivity, health data is dispersed across numerous platforms and is difficult to comprehend, use, exchange, and maintain securely. Requesting, sending, receiving, and assembling patient data is a time-consuming procedure that frequently consumes excessive resources. This is due to the lack of accessibility to medical information and the absence of complete technology for health data, making software developers increasingly important in the healthcare space. 

Software frameworks can provide the platform to which healthcare data can safely, securely, and efficiently be used. Source Meridian is one company that has been blazing a trail for this in medicine, developing software-as-a-service (SaaS) for each of its clients in the healthcare space through its team of international software engineers and data scientists. Wielding this team of experts, the company helps to integrate federated and central warehouse technologies, helping their clients to circumnavigate the restrictions and regulations of healthcare data—all while abiding by HIPPA and patient privacy laws. By evaluating data from various institutions and electronic medical records, the company provides its clients with a unified perspective of a patient’s journey.

“Healthcare is, by nature, a very people-intensive business that conversely struggles with data sharing even within a single organization,” said Mike Hoey, founder and President of Source Meridian in an interview with Forbes. “It’s totally commonplace for a large hospital with all of your records to send you to outpatient services at a facility that has literally no idea what care you have previously received.”

Source Meridian helps to analyze and question an organization’s existing offerings and business model and suggest new digitized pathways that can result in higher functionality for servicing patients. Customizing their software with tools such as big data and artificial intelligence, they help their clients establish a competitive edge and keep them at the forefront of the industry.

Needed Safety Stops with Data

More free-flowing healthcare data should have its cautions as well. Nowadays, people can access most of their medical information via their provider’s online platform, which has led to a steady increase in the number of people consulting “Dr.Google”. This has resulted in many individuals self-diagnosing, which can lead to the misinterpretation of medical information and escalating anxiety. 

In fact, according to a survey by the American Health Information Management Association Foundation, patients often don’t fully grasp their own personal medical information. 

For stakeholders in healthcare, something known as human-centered design (HCD) in patient interfaces can start to help to build bridges over this disparity between patients and their providers in the digital world. This again stresses the importance of software developers in a medical company’s journey to becoming digitized. Healthtech companies have the know-how to help prioritize user experience (UX) and HCD when helping providers to establish an online platform.

Another area of focus at Source Meridian is real-world evidence. They use clinical data about the application of technology in the healthcare space and the potential advantages or disadvantages of a medical product. Assembling comprehensive healthcare analytics programs to help deliver effective real-world-proof initiatives, the company looks at the whole digital picture. This helps medical services utilize a combination of technical mapping and functional expertise to ensure their providers are using data in the right ways. 

“The keyword here is ‘interoperability’,” continued Hoey to Forbes.

Acting as conduit, digital health technologies have become a way that physicians can leverage real-time data to treat patients successfully. With the help of companies like Source Meridian, the medical industry can confidently wield data to provide better services, which will ultimately help them to create new streams of revenue and provide a better patient experience. 

Better Data, Better Care

In this fast-paced digital world, timely healthcare delivery is critical. The proper groundwork is also necessary, however, to ensure that providers can turn content into their greatest asset. Source Meridian helps medical services build out their technological capabilities so that they have the foundation to leverage data for improvements.

More healthcare providers that digitize safely and accurately will help the industry graduate from an antiquated, unconnected jumble of sensitive data points. This will help the field as a whole enter the modern technological healthcare era where both patients and providers can be better served. 

Disclosure: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company.