Big data in healthcare describes the massive volumes of information created due to the adoption of digital technologies that collect patients’ records and information and assist in the management of hospitals’ performance. Patient portals, electronic health records (EHRs), wearable devices, and research studies as well as government health agencies are sources of big data in health care. Big data provides benefits as well as the challenges that it may contain (Abouelmehdi et al., 2018). One benefit of using big data in healthcare is increased efficiency in care delivery across all care settings, including acute care and emergency department as well as monitoring of patients with chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension. For instance, nurse administrators and public health nurses can use big data to assess or evaluate the trend in patient admission rates and prevalence of certain public health concerns like the comorbidities. Through analysis of admission rates, the nurse administrators can determine the level of staff needed (Dash et al., 2019). For instance, predictive analytics allow nurse administrators to make effective decisions concerning most efficient staff level that can offer better care.
Conversely, one challenge of big data in health care, especially in nursing, is data security. Recent incidents of increased cyber espionage and hacking implore healthcare administrators to develop better database security measures, including firewalls and anti-malware software to reduce the severity of these data theft events (Pastorino et al., 2019). Encryption of sensitive patient data, restriction and tracking of access to data and applications are some of the best strategies to mitigate security breaches that have the ability to compromise data security (Sivarajah et al., 2018). The implication is that providers and organizations should have policies and processes that lead to the implementation of these measures to prevent and reduce data security vulnerabilities in healthcare settings.
References
Abouelmehdi, K., Beni-Hessane, A., & Khaloufi, H. (2018). Big healthcare data: preserving
security and privacy. Journal of big data, 5(1), 1-18.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537-017-0110-7
Dash, S., Shakyawar, S. K., Sharma, M., & Kaushik, S. (2019). Big data in healthcare:
management, analysis and future prospects. Journal of Big Data, 6(1), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537-019-0217-0
Pastorino, R., De Vito, C., Migliara, G., Glocker, K., Binenbaum, I., Ricciardi, W., & Boccia, S.
(2019). Benefits and challenges of Big Data in healthcare: an overview of the European initiatives. European journal of public health, 29(Supplement_3), 23-27. DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckz168
Sivarajah, U., Kamal, M. M., Irani, Z., & Weerakkody, V. (2017). Critical analysis of Big Data
challenges and analytical methods. Journal of business research, 70, 263-286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.08.001
Order this paper