Introduction
Health care is among the spheres of knowledge that produce and utilize big data, which means outstandingly large amounts of theoretical and practical evidence. At first sight, pieces of it are poorly interconnected, but a deep analysis can reveal relations among them, providing new prospects for research. Therefore, health informatics doubtlessly will continue to develop together with the entire medical industry, as several areas can utilize it.
Main body
A bright example is data mining, an approach to processing information that enables discovering relationships between topics. In health care, this technique can help identify certain tendencies and patterns in patient needs and behavior (Mastrian & McGonigle, 2021). Better awareness of those, in turn, enables quicker and more adequate responses, consequently adding to the quality of patient care. Regarding the administrative side, data mining can simplify the sorting of information, which saves time in creating bases for patients and makes them easier to navigate.
The analytical capacity of healthcare informatics evolves together with the increase in the amount and diversity of the data that the industry operates. Specifically, the tools become more precise, which enables identifying more patterns (Mastrian & McGonigle, 2021). This can provide a broader perspective on the possible risk factors for the spread of a disease, contributing not only to managing a particular patient but also to improving public health.
Due to its precision, big data analysis can be helpful not only in health care but also in academic research. Data mining broadens the prospects of evidence-based medicine; specifically, it enables identifying certain tendencies faster by comparing and contrasting cases and makes the outcomes more informative (Mastrian & McGonigle, 2021). In addition to adjusting patient care, this allows for complex research on the etiology and spread of diseases. It is essential to remember, however, that vulnerability of information grows together with its amount and importance. Therefore, the HITECH and the HIPAA, the acts that regulate data security in healthcare, may need to be toughened with further development of big data analysis.
Summary
To summarize, health informatics is applicable to several areas of medical science, such as patient care, public health, and academic research. All of these products operate big data, which calls for specific analytical tools; furthermore, the latter have to become more precise as the amounts and diversity of information increase as well. The negative side of this evolution is the growing vulnerability of data, due to which additional security measures may be necessary.
Reference
Mastrian, K. G., & McGonigle, D. (2021). Informatics for health professionals (2nd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.