Big data is having a positive impact in all endeavors of life such as in accounting, aviation, military intelligence, banking, and health. It simply refers to an all-inclusive approach to managing, processing, and analyzing huge volumes of data that can provide insights for making reliable and evidence-based decisions.
Over the years, the healthcare sectors of many regions of the world have experienced a dramatic change from a disease-centered to a patient-centered model and volume-based to a value-based healthcare delivery model. One of the goals of healthcare delivery is to provide effective patient-centered care, it is necessary to highlight that this is unachievable without proper management and analysis of voluminous health data.
|
|
|
The Position of Africa in Data Utilisation for Healthcare Delivery
|
|
|
The demand for data-driven healthcare is rising in the world today, as it is critical to ensuring improvements in the reliability and efficiency of healthcare delivery. However, not all regions of the world today have been able to leverage the opportunities provided by big data.
In Africa, reports revealed that healthcare facilities generate a lot of data that is not properly harnessed for strategic decision making. Furthermore, the available data is not optimally utilized, in part due to lack of technical know-how, poor organisational foundation/governance structure, and lack of appropriate technology and tools. Although healthcare systems in some parts of Africa are experiencing some breakthroughs due to the application of big data, it is saddening to know that their counterparts are still lagging behind.
As Africa is closely associated with a significantly high burden of diseases, there is a greater and urgent need for big data utilisation, even much more than other regions of the world.
|
|
|
Data is the new oil: Presents an Opportunity for Healthcare Improvement in Africa
|
|
|
The need for change is constant as healthcare improves overtime. Just like other business enterprises, efficient healthcare delivery is information-driven. Health systems and organisations must use data strategically to transform care clinically, financially, and operationally.
Healthcare providers need the right amount of data to drive decisions and enact policies that affect the delivery of healthcare. Big data provides new opportunities worth exploring by health systems in Africa as it has the potential of improving health outcomes. For instance, in the United States, health authorities in major cities decided to pool data to direct social and health care. They developed an integrated data system that allowed for the coordination of efforts to improve emergency department services and the care of diabetic patients. The integrated framework was also used to chart and stratify the risks of lead exposure by geographically pooling the census data, tax payments, and lead concentrations found in blood tests. Screening for lead exposure could then focus on high-risk areas, resulting in significant improvements in the detection and control of lead exposure in children. Such information sharing and analysis can bridge the gaps that have predominantly divided population health.
These are some of the indispensable benefits that can be tapped when big data is applied in healthcare delivery. Without a doubt, if Africa is to experience any significant improvement in healthcare delivery in this present era, then the concept of big data has to be greatly leveraged upon.
|
|
|
|
As part of what we do, we collect, analyze and present data in order to identify opportunities for improvement and inform decision making.
Image Credit: Ducit Blue Solutions
|
|
|
Factors Hindering the Application of Big Data in Africa
|
|
|
The uptake of big data in Africa is being threatened by the unavailability of necessary frameworks needed to enhance its applicability. This has made the use of big data in Africa increasingly complex irrespective of its immense benefits. According to the World Health Organization, in Africa, individual information collection – a prerequisite for any big data approach – is full of ethical, regulatory, and technological issues. This raises further concerns, as anonymization of data is not guaranteed although necessary.
In addition, the lack of technical know-how, poor organisational foundation/governance structure, and lack of appropriate technology and tools further hinders big data application.
|
|
|
It is crucial for health systems and organisations to make big data a primary and not tangential strategy. This approach may represent a major milestone as it enhances more robust, efficient, and reliable health outcomes. While this approach may have immense value when applied in health systems in Africa, it is quite vulnerable to misuse and fragmentation in the region. To minimize these risks, further collaborative governance, careful analysis, and technical partnerships are required.
Organizations and health systems in the developed world that has built successful and sustainable data-driven improvement systems have in place the following features:
- A strong governance structure to support sustainable improvement, with clear priorities, and empowered staff with the required resources.
- Ensured incentives are in place for continuous commitment towards organizational goals.
- Provided the technology and tools to manage big data and interoperability.
It is pertinent for Africa to change her data narrative by taking a cue from the developed countries and build a big data global workforce to reckon with. Big data can help drive African centred solutions by Africans. Rome wasn’t built in a day, so let's take responsibility and lay the foundation towards building our Rome.
|
|
|
|
Excerpt from our masterclass on combating antimicrobial resistance and data for strategic healthcare delivery for healthcare professionals.
Image Credits: Ducit Blue Solutions
|
|
|
|
