Snowflake, has helped many organizations in various fields to embark on their own data-driven journey towards business advancement. Through the equipment of a single, integrated platform, Snowflake offers these organizations data analytics solutions to their business needs. With the rise of data-driven solutions to solve many issues in healthcare as well as to boost innovation, Geoff Soon, Managing Director of Snowflake, South Asia, shares with us how data analytics can help to push healthcare innovation to the next level.
1. How can data analytics improve health outcomes for patients, reduce administrative burdens, and support healthcare organisation work by:
a. Improving customer experience
b. Improving interoperability of consumer data access
Today’s healthcare providers such as biopharmaceutical companies and medical technology businesses need technology platforms and tools to collect, store, analyse, and share information. This information includes data from electronic health records, administrative and claims, patient registries, and clinical trial statistics. While this explosion of information is prompting a new era in healthcare, transforming clinical diagnostics and the delivery of patient care, many healthcare organisations experience challenges with safeguarding and protecting patient information, as well as interoperability in the exchange of information from multiple sources.
At the same time, organisations are changing their value frameworks to focus on clinical outcomes and treatment efficiency.
Data analytics could improve health outcomes for hospitals and patients in the following ways through data interoperability and unites all consumer data from different sources and systems virtually.
Increased care coordination – Data silos caused by information scattered across different clinic departments, IT infrastructure, and systems can cause serious delays, mistakes, or other problems that can potentially be troublesome for patients. With proper digitisation, hospitals can connect all data collections and master every data element in one place. The next step is to facilitate communication and ensure easy information flow within the healthcare organisation.
Enhanced customer satisfaction – Analysis of patient feedback, onsite and in-app behavioural data allows hospitals and clinics to optimise their services. Then, by supplying the information individuals look for, patient satisfaction can be enhanced by enabling them to track and monitor their own health without unnecessary trips to healthcare facilities.
Consistent care delivery – Hospitals and clinics gain a full overview of the patient’s interactions with their services, offers and products by integrating online and offline data. Then, they can apply this information to deliver a smooth experience to their customers.
2. How can hospital and research lab teams access diverse sets of data efficiently?
Through technologies such as the Data Cloud, hospital and research lab teams can access diverse sets of data on the same platform. With secure, seamless, and governed exchange of sensitive data at scale, organisations can easily share data and collaborate with others. Data sharing capabilities of cloud platforms are built on top of secure data sharing technology which allows organisations to give internal and external users access to live, ready-to-query data sets without having to move, copy, or transfer data. Companies can also combine public data sets with their own data to gain the diversity that enables deeper insights and better data-driven decisions.
3. How can data from various sources such as clinical applications and Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices be gathered into a centralised repository?
COVID-19 has presented healthcare organisations with the challenge of managing and analysing extremely large data sets. The Data Cloud can integrate structured and semi-structured data from a variety of sources, including online transaction processing (OLTP) databases, clinical applications, and internet of medical things (IoMT) devices, into a centralised repository. From there, data scientists can use automated organisation tools to analyse the data more quickly and efficiently. With data integration, healthcare organisations could make data more accessible and valuable for collaboration and reduction of errors.
4. What are some tools data scientists can use to analyse data more quickly and efficiently, unlocking much-needed insights to accelerate innovation for new vaccines?
As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, a deluge of data is being generated every day and it is impossible for researchers to keep up. Vaccine research takes time and resources and is a risky enterprise which requires large data sets. Globally, billions of dollars have been invested for the purpose of research and the development of vaccines. As one of the organisations that is supporting the funding of companies researching vaccines, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is seeking USD 31 billion to combat COVID-19.
Analytics through the Data Cloud could surface trends and actionable insights across a wide range of data sets to alleviate the cost burden researchers and analysts face as they look for clues that will accelerate vaccine development and identify effective treatments. By using a secure platform, data scientists could benefit from automated and self-service services, enabling life science companies to focus on their core business instead of IT management. With near-zero maintenance, such platforms provide a simple-to-use and cost-efficient solution to increase productivity. With multi-cluster and shared data architecture, businesses can scale without downtime or disruption.
5. How can healthcare institutions safely compute valuable information to improve customer experience while protecting confidential patient information at the same time? How could they remain compliant with stringent regulation and quality guidelines according to local and national laws?
In the life sciences industry, companies must comply with stringent regulations and quality guidelines that regulate practices in various settings to ensure medical products are safe for consumers. Organisations need to use technology and platforms which adhere to these guidelines to help them validate their workloads and meet the industry’s standards and best practices.
This includes protecting, exchanging governed and sensitive data with internal and external data consumers with the help of built-in security that supports regulations such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Service Organisation Control 1 (SOC 1) and (SOC 2), and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements.
Using a secure platform provides an extensive portfolio of security certifications and granular controls that enable secure and governed access to all data. Healthcare providers and payers can ensure governance by building a single source of truth to power visual analytics across their organisations. By securely storing, sharing, and integrating data with multiple sources, providers and payers can democratise data and drive decision-making across their organisations with meaningful insights to cope with the rapidly changing healthcare sector. [APBN]
About the Interviewee
Geoff Soon is a managing director leading Snowflake’s business growth across South Asia, which includes India, ASEAN, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. He is responsible for establishing the region’s go-to-market strategy and scaling Snowflake’s adoption across verticals. Geoff is a senior executive with over 20 years of experience in the information technology industry and has a deep-rooted passion for growing businesses. He spent his career in Asia and Australia building successful teams.