face to face
focus is on heart
disease, specifically
on patients with
symptoms of Acute
Myocardial Infarction
(AMI). The primary
objective of the project
is to search through
the existing data sets
for hidden patterns of
both the predictable
and preventable
events in managing
the healthcare of
individuals. The focus
of the current work
is to identify patients
at risk of frequent
unplanned re-
admissions.
Frequent unplanned
re-admissions
diminish the patient
care and institutional
performance and adds
to the cost of managing
AMI patients.
Recent observations
indicate that out of
five admitted AMI
patients nearly one
patient is readmitted
within 0-30 days
after discharge. To
reduce unplanned
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BioVoiceNews | October 2017
readmission, it
is mandatory to
recognize the high-
risk patient during
initial admission
and then identify
the risk factors and
administer medication
accordingly.
Has the data
been really used
to its potential?
What about the
data security and
privacy? Are there
any laws?
Currently the world
is experiencing a data
deluge. We are living
in the world of big data
where the traditional
methods have failed
to manage this scale
and complexity. At the
centre of this data-
wealth, is the health
sector with data on
admissions, diagnosis
and outcomes,
spanning a bewildering
and disconnected
web of images,
computerized records
and registries. There
are no systems to
manage this big data.
Despite the wealth
of health solutions
trapped in the ore, this
critical resource is not
mined. The result is
write only data, mostly
unused, with untapped
potential to identify
critical safety issues,
as well as service and
clinical efficiencies.
The security of data
is indeed an issue.
While the general
data is always at the
risk, the mined data
has to be protected
more because of
vulnerability. There
are no defined
laws as the area is
still developing.
Institutional bioethics
committees generally
monitor the issues on
case to case basis at
various organizations
where the work related
to data or big data
related to clinical
procedures or health is
happening.