Michael Morris
IT Matters - Top 5 factors CEOs need to know to harness Big Data
December 31, 2014
By Michael Morris
A perfect storm is brewing in technology: data availability and access to key skill sets to solve previously unimaginable problems. It’s referred to as, “The Big Data Revolution” and this confluence of technology, data and skill will allow us to do amazing things.
• Technology: The speed of technological advances in processing and storage continue to break Moore’s Law. Use of shared infrastructures and cloud allow for new levels of access to less established research.
• Data: The move from an analog world (manual, captured, single tenant) to a digital world (automated, inferred, multitenant) is causing data volumes to increase at a geometric rate. Think about the data being captured by sensors and devices like Fitbit and Apple Health, this trend will increase and start becoming more specialized for conditions like chronic disease.
• Skill: New paradigms in resource management, including crowdsourcing, enable access to a talent pool that spans beyond department, division, company, industry, background or country. As CEO, it’s critical to understand these top 5 factors in harnessing The Big Data Revolution in order to increase the quality of care for patients, while staying relevant in an environment where new players and disruptive technology are challenging incumbents.
No more tribal knowledge
Traditionally, the relationship with your doctor was based on their knowledge of you and your family history. Data was very personalized and they combined that with a knowledgebase of experience and research to assess proper course of action. What has changed is the ability to access our genome. We can now view, read and understand our entire genetic makeup. This allows us to compare against other genomes.
A multi-tenant data infrastructure allows an individual’s genome to be combined with all other available genomes to make educated and specific decisions on a condition, treatment and outcome. Genomes, the technology used to store them and the algorithms applied to analyze them will take the guesswork out of health care. In addition, we now have data being collected by devices and sensors (again, like Fitbit and Apple Health) that collect data between the whitespace of doctor visits. All of this data enables an unprecedented level of analysis, which will eventually lead into unchartered territory around predictive analytics.
Predictive
Think about a world where your doctor visit is no longer about what condition you have and it now becomes a conversation of what condition you are going to have or may have in the future. Prognoses can now be that specific, and backed by data inherent to you instead of data coming from an industry journal. Prediction accuracy is the wildcard here, but what we’re sure of is that it will get better until we approach the theoretical limit on accuracy (i.e. knowing). Think about the global impact of applying this to the simple common cold, or the most complex chronic diseases.
Preventative
If you can see the future, you can make decisions on how to handle the future. For example: what medication to take, treatment plans, monitoring strategies, etc. Since there’s no lack of data, we’ve only been limited by our ability to capture, analyze and apply it. Processing all the information we can about our genetic code empowers us to predict what a treatment will do, how it will affect us and if it can be prevented.
Real-time answers
Previously, the time it took for analysts to do this intricate genome level detective work was unacceptable. Technology has only recently “unlocked” the genome, allowing us to leverage it in record time. Waiting a hundred days to figure out if you have a condition defeats the purpose. Waiting 10 minutes? That’s a miracle. The key to realtime answers is access to a global base of scientists, mathematicians and engineers, who will, eventually, make genome investigation as simple as querying the web for an answer.
Access
With anything disruptive comes a new user interface. Not only do executives need to be ready, but they must also have the knowhow to lead their extended teams. The Big Data Revolution will, inevitably, be totally mobile and remote. We’re seeing this happen already; much like medical record access is becoming more fluid between distributed hospitals, doctors, clinics and pharmacies.
Soon, it’ll be virtual and hit consumer devices with a tap of an app. We see it already proliferating throughout society, with home health care on iPads, remote aid being delivered by drones and Google Glass that helps doctors treat patients remotely. Only second to wondering who will be the next Amazon or Uber of the health care world, is which CEO will be savvy enough to drive innovation?
About the author: Michael Morris drives customer innovation and sales/services as the GM for Topcoder, the 700K+ strong global software development community. Topcoder is the proprietary crowdsourcing community and platform that powers Appirio, the leading consultancy for cloud technology development.
A perfect storm is brewing in technology: data availability and access to key skill sets to solve previously unimaginable problems. It’s referred to as, “The Big Data Revolution” and this confluence of technology, data and skill will allow us to do amazing things.
• Technology: The speed of technological advances in processing and storage continue to break Moore’s Law. Use of shared infrastructures and cloud allow for new levels of access to less established research.
• Data: The move from an analog world (manual, captured, single tenant) to a digital world (automated, inferred, multitenant) is causing data volumes to increase at a geometric rate. Think about the data being captured by sensors and devices like Fitbit and Apple Health, this trend will increase and start becoming more specialized for conditions like chronic disease.
• Skill: New paradigms in resource management, including crowdsourcing, enable access to a talent pool that spans beyond department, division, company, industry, background or country. As CEO, it’s critical to understand these top 5 factors in harnessing The Big Data Revolution in order to increase the quality of care for patients, while staying relevant in an environment where new players and disruptive technology are challenging incumbents.
No more tribal knowledge
Traditionally, the relationship with your doctor was based on their knowledge of you and your family history. Data was very personalized and they combined that with a knowledgebase of experience and research to assess proper course of action. What has changed is the ability to access our genome. We can now view, read and understand our entire genetic makeup. This allows us to compare against other genomes.
A multi-tenant data infrastructure allows an individual’s genome to be combined with all other available genomes to make educated and specific decisions on a condition, treatment and outcome. Genomes, the technology used to store them and the algorithms applied to analyze them will take the guesswork out of health care. In addition, we now have data being collected by devices and sensors (again, like Fitbit and Apple Health) that collect data between the whitespace of doctor visits. All of this data enables an unprecedented level of analysis, which will eventually lead into unchartered territory around predictive analytics.
Predictive
Think about a world where your doctor visit is no longer about what condition you have and it now becomes a conversation of what condition you are going to have or may have in the future. Prognoses can now be that specific, and backed by data inherent to you instead of data coming from an industry journal. Prediction accuracy is the wildcard here, but what we’re sure of is that it will get better until we approach the theoretical limit on accuracy (i.e. knowing). Think about the global impact of applying this to the simple common cold, or the most complex chronic diseases.
Preventative
If you can see the future, you can make decisions on how to handle the future. For example: what medication to take, treatment plans, monitoring strategies, etc. Since there’s no lack of data, we’ve only been limited by our ability to capture, analyze and apply it. Processing all the information we can about our genetic code empowers us to predict what a treatment will do, how it will affect us and if it can be prevented.
Real-time answers
Previously, the time it took for analysts to do this intricate genome level detective work was unacceptable. Technology has only recently “unlocked” the genome, allowing us to leverage it in record time. Waiting a hundred days to figure out if you have a condition defeats the purpose. Waiting 10 minutes? That’s a miracle. The key to realtime answers is access to a global base of scientists, mathematicians and engineers, who will, eventually, make genome investigation as simple as querying the web for an answer.
Access
With anything disruptive comes a new user interface. Not only do executives need to be ready, but they must also have the knowhow to lead their extended teams. The Big Data Revolution will, inevitably, be totally mobile and remote. We’re seeing this happen already; much like medical record access is becoming more fluid between distributed hospitals, doctors, clinics and pharmacies.
Soon, it’ll be virtual and hit consumer devices with a tap of an app. We see it already proliferating throughout society, with home health care on iPads, remote aid being delivered by drones and Google Glass that helps doctors treat patients remotely. Only second to wondering who will be the next Amazon or Uber of the health care world, is which CEO will be savvy enough to drive innovation?
About the author: Michael Morris drives customer innovation and sales/services as the GM for Topcoder, the 700K+ strong global software development community. Topcoder is the proprietary crowdsourcing community and platform that powers Appirio, the leading consultancy for cloud technology development.