The onset of the digital world has

given way to generate a plethora of

data in the healthcare sector. Every
day, an enormous number of medical,
research and insurance data is

Data generated in the medical field

worldwide. These are compounded
by the information produced by

Science In wearable devices, mobile health

apps, and telemedicine. All of this
medical data needs to be stored,

Healthcare
managed, and protected in a way
that also makes it easily accessible,
understandable and shareable
among caregivers across the world.

The need to process large volumes

The Next Biggest of data is prompting medical field
professionals to turn toward data
Thing science techniques to ensure that the
never-ending inflow of medical
information has a secure location to
exist virtually.

While nations worldwide promise a

tremendous amount of their overall
GDP for the betterment of the data
management process in the
healthcare sector, the issue around
making sense of information and
keeping it safe remains a significant
concern. Many medical service
providers have already adopted
several measures to store and
manage their ever-increasing medical
data by digitizing research databases
and patient records and using
Electronic Health Records (EHRs).
The only factor that combines all the This white paper discusses several
aforementioned medical data trends such aspects of data science and its
is data science(DS). subset technologies to better the
healthcare sector’s data
After assessing the need for DS in management process. The analysis
healthcare, many startups, as well as involves identifying the main
well-known firms, have come up with obstacles around data management
innovative ideas for helping medical in the medical field and coming up
companies improve their services. with one or more solutions to tackle
One of them is Flatiron Health, the problem. The paper will also
whose OncologyCloud platform include the rise of digital adoption
connects cancer centres across the by healthcare firms and their
US using big data and cloud-based attempt to make sense of medical
software. Microsoft, too, has joined information that comes their way.
the healthcare revolution and
programmed AI capabilities for
patient management, clinical
prescriptions suggestions, and
patient health predictions.
Digital
Revolution
in the
Healthcare
Industry
As per a report published by
McKinsey & Company in 2016, the
pharma industry has been
surprisingly behind other sectors in
joining the digital revolution. Ranking
lower than finance and media firms,
healthcare has been slow at adopting
the new concepts and technologies
that can improve services and
consumer experience.

The latecomer is now gradually

picking up the pace by utilising
digital tools and services that help
caregivers provide better services,
researchers to conduct high-qualified
experiments, and patients to receive
superior service.
These are a few of the significant digital transformations in the medical sector:

Speedy and
Improved Diagnosis
Several digital tools and computing machines can increasingly manage the flow of
information to help doctors and nurses filter the patient information in a matter of
seconds. Massive amounts of data already residing in EHRs can be fed into this
medical software and tools, helping caregivers filter, sort, and organise the data to
understand it better and nitpick the errors, in case they exist.

Wearables and Mobile Apps

The advent of digital tools brought convenience, and the consumers were
provided with a spectrum of wearable devices that recorded their bodily
functions like heart rate, blood pressure, and any fluctuation in the healthy
organs’ functionalities. Connectivity of these wearables with smartphones
opened up new avenues where the users could save their health-related data
anytime. Even doctors could access patient data using these wearables without
having to meet them physically. Doctors wouldn’t need to visit the patient or
vice-versa to write up the prescriptions as it could be delivered to the patient
as per their medical records via mobile apps.

Personalised Healthcare
Easy and early access to patient data has enabled doctors and nurses to
provide customised care to every patient that needs it. The possibility of
combating diseases by better understanding an individual’s genetic profile
would improve medical care in the hospital as well as at home.
 Digital Health
Similar to wearables, digital health
is the concept of reaching patients
and offering them advice beyond
the constraint of a personal
meeting. As per WHO, the world
would experience a shortage of
nearly 12.9 skilled million medical
professionals by the year 2035, and
digital health will come to the
rescue. Not only is this technique
better for senior citizens who
wouldn’t have to run to the hospital
for every minor issue, but it would
even help doctors cater to more
patients in less time.

Drug Discovery and Trial

In the last few years, pharmaceutical R&D has taken a back seat. But, with the
introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) in the healthcare sector, the instances
of drug research, discovery, and trials are potentially seeing a surge in many
nations. Many AI-powered digital solutions, such as clinical trial simulation,
modelling, and simulation, computer-assisted trial design, model-based drug
development along with model-informed drug discovery and development, are
gradually replacing specific lab experiments.

Data has been embedded in every aspect of the digital transformation of the
medical industry. Thus, it is time for the health care providers to identify the
underlying problems that accompany data influx and come up with solutions
that drive away those complex obstacles using data science concepts and
techniques.
Discovering the
Potential Need
for Data
Science in
Healthcare

Data is critical for the medical field and all caregivers. Not only does it play a
vital role in transforming medical services for the betterment of patients, but it
also proves essential for drug research and development (R&D). For both of
these operations, data science has emerged as the go-to technology for many
medical service providers. But, there are way more reasons behind the
increasing adoption of data science in the healthcare sector that are not
dependent on the tasks as mentioned above.
 Digital Transformation
Means More Data Silos
The EHR and other healthcare systems are storing data coming in from
wearables, mobile apps, doctors’ manual input, and hospitals’ patient directory.
All of this data exists in silos, making it extremely difficult for caregivers to
access and understand with a click of a button.

Data Management
and Protection
In the year 2019, 7.9 billion healthcare records were breached and stolen by
September. Such instances are quite common due to the massive influx of
patient and drug trial data threatening the small unscalable healthcare
computing systems and tools. The need for better data management and
protection tools is higher than before.

Government Policies and

International Standards
Policies around healthcare are ever-changing, owing to the drug R&D that
requires multiple government approvals as well as global compliance. Medical
firms need a centralised virtual location where they can monitor and update the
policy changes to stay compliant with all the necessary regulations in the
healthcare sector.
 Digital Medicine
Consumers of the healthcare sector are
eyeing the digital revolution to reach
the comfort of their homes. Instead of
physically visiting the hospitals, patients
(especially senior citizens) are turning
toward digital medicine to contact
caregivers and monitor their health
updates. These instances of digital
medicine have generated a heap of
data that is continually moving around
in the network and requires an online
repository to stay protected from theft.

Better Data Control

and Privacy
As the medical industry is inching toward a standardized practice of digital
adoption, all the patient data is now just a click away from doctors as well as
patients. Not only has this easy access given rise to a more controlled
environment where medical information is shared with authorized personals
only but has also raised the alarm around patients’ data privacy rules.

As a result of these rising data requirements and concerns in the healthcare

field, there is a need for all medical service providers to turn towards data
science techniques and work in unison with the methods that address all the
problem statements.
Making
Sense of
Medical
Data using
Data Science

Data science (DS) is a means of processing, managing and storing structured as

well as unstructured data in a way that it would make sense to the next person
accessing it. Over the years, DS has made its mark in several industry verticals
as companies continue to generate and collect enormous amounts of data from
every branch of the business. In healthcare, DS functions primarily to save the
history of the patients as well as other relevant medical information for ready
access and predict the future drug trial results and success for the population
at large.
 Drug Discovery and
Simulation
Clinical trials consist of hundreds of thousands of data points, which vary with
time and population density, as well as age. With DS, pharma companies are
easily navigating through these tremendous data points and simulating the
reaction of newly developed drugs upon human trials. One of the biggest
pharmaceutical companies in the world, GSK has been working with data
science for years. The firm has been partnering with biobanks and other
pharma companies to leverage AI and computer simulation in drug R&D to
expedite the process further.

Even Apple entered the healthcare R&D market with its ResearchKit software to
help researchers find and recruit suitable participants and manage the drug
trial data after the study is complete.

+ Patient Diagnosis
In 2018, BBC published an article on patient misdiagnosis reportedly resulting
in around 40,000 to 80,000 deaths annually in the US alone. Data science
works wonder to halt such incidents. One of the best uses of DS is in medical
image processing and data access. AI-powered computers are better and
faster at interpreting medical data from X-rays, MRIs, and other tests to identify
any instances of a tumour, organ failure, or blood vessel blockage. With no
room for error, these computers aid doctors and caregivers to easily
understand the data and access a single patient’s record in no time.

A well-known start-up, Enlitic has worked on reducing the instances of

misdiagnosis using data science. The firm has developed its own deep learning
algorithm that can accurately analyze medical imaging data (such as x-rays and
CT scans) against an extensive database of clinical reports and laboratory
studies.
 At-home Health Monitoring
People rarely want to step outside
the comfort of their homes, let alone
a patient visiting a doctor regularly.
More so, complications often arise
after treatment or surgery, leaving
doctors to rely on at-home healthcare
services to monitor the patients after
they are discharged from the
hospital. Remote in-house medical
services help doctors access patient
data anytime and even connect with
the person virtually in real-time. One
of the most useful tools in this regard
is Intel’s Cloudera Software, which
assists caregivers to predict the
chances of a patient’s re-admittance
within 30 days based on their
Electronic Medical Record (EMR).

Data Breach Prevention

As mentioned earlier, every year has seen a surge in medical data breach and
theft incidents. Drug trial R&D results are often the centre target of such
attacks, but with AI-powered devices and tools, hospitals are better positioned
to combat these unauthorized breakthroughs. Not only are these intelligent
tools equipped to cope with the incoming attacks, but they also inform the
origin and point of the breach, helping hospitals take stringent actions in such
incidents. One example is IBM’s AI-enabled computer system, Watson, that
works in expediting routine security assessments, reducing response times and
false positives, and providing recommendations based on in-depth analysis.
Future Prospects
The current state of DS in healthcare is showing promising results across the
globe. Every medical service is now being enabled and improved by DS and AI,
thereby assisting the caregivers to become less dependent on physical
meetings and contacts. To top that, DS has also emerged as the revolutionary
technology that is guiding hospitals to scan through hundreds and thousands
of data points related to patients’ medical history and drug R&D. This has not
only saved time but also kept the information secure and in one place for easy
access.

Going by the trend, Accenture’s recent report forecasts that the role of AI in
healthcare data security will reach an annual total of $2 billion by 2026.

The future of healthcare is potentially empowered by the introduction of DS

and AI in it. Most importantly, both of these technologies will help provide
higher-grade medical services to rural and under-developed nations at a click
of a button. Even the need to protect the data transfer in such cases is tackled
by AI-enabled software that understands the information and keeps it safe
from potential theft.

The new pharma market needs to be

more familiar with Data Science and
should adopt it. This whitepaper’s
purpose is to enhance the use of
DS in healthcare. It is based on
identifying the problem statement
and matching it with the
different solutions available
in the form of DS-enabled
tools and software.