Healthcare data analytics poised to surge in next four years, study says

The use of data analytics is primed for rapid growth within U.S. hospitals, according to “U.S. Hospital Health Data Analytics Market,” a research report released by analyst firm Frost & Sullivan earlier this month.

In 2011, only 10 percent of hospitals had implemented software that could conduct data analytics, but as many as 50 percent of hospitals could be using data analytics by 2016, the report suggests.

Data analytics involves the mining of collected healthcare data to identify quantitative and qualitative trends. Advanced healthcare data analytics will “require data integration across various operational areas” and will make use of “new tools allow real-time and predictive analysis as opposed to historical event (retrospective) reporting,” according to the report’s executive summary.

In most cases, advanced data analytics can be greatly assisted by the use of an electronic health record system (EHR). About one-third (35 percent) of U.S. hospitals had an EHR system in 2011, but nearly all hospitals (95 percent) are expected to have one by 2016.

Although the Frost & Sullivan study was limited to U.S. hospitals, the increased exchange of data between hospitals and long-term care facilities prompted by the focus on transitions of care will most likely bring SNFs and other post-acute care into the data analytics mix.

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