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Big Data In Healthcare
The Healthcare system has evolved once with technology, trying to
improve the quality of living and save human lives. Big data is nowadays
one of the most important domains of future technology and has gained
the attention of the healthcare system.
Big Data refers to the abundant health data amassed from numerous
sources including Electronic Health Records (EHRs), medical imaging,
genomic sequencing, payor records, pharmaceutical research,
wearables, and medical devices, to name a few.
With its diversity in format, type, and context, it is difficult to merge big
healthcare data into conventional databases, making it enormously
challenging to process, and hard for industry leaders to harness its
significant promise to transform the industry.
We live in an age where data is used to drive business decisions. Every
company has access to massive amounts of data about their customers,
but successful businesses are able to turn that data into actionable
intelligence to develop better and more optimized business processes.
The healthcare industry is no different. In fact, the growth rate of
healthcare data is projected to be greater than that of the total global
data set.
At 153 exabytes back in 2013, the healthcare industry is expected to
generate 2,314 exabytes of data by 2020, a 48% annual growth rate.
Now Big Data has both pros and cons which are as follows:
Pros
❖ Consistency of Care is perhaps the easiest use of patient information,
allowing different doctors, nurses, and other staff to view patient histories
to ensure they are delivering consistent care, or are able to modify
treatment to generate more positive outcomes if initial treatment plans
aren’t having the desired effect. On a broader scale, the aggregation of
patient data can help identify best practices for specific conditions,
driving standardization of treatment and consistency of care as well as
results.
❖ Personalized Medicine where a constant flow of data from sensors
monitoring and recording a variety of vital statistics can help providers
tailor care based on individual patient needs, circumstances, and results.
Connected healthcare devices deliver data that can be used to create
more effective treatment plans while recognizing patterns or elevated
conditions sooner, allowing faster recognition of changes in condition
and adjustment of treatments.
❖ Increased Efficiency: While a large part of data and analytics can directly
impact patient care, healthcare systems also have an opportunity to use
data to increase their own operational efficiency, which also impacts
patients. By understanding how staff and equipment are being used, in
conjunction with patient information, systems can identify opportunities
for operational improvements, including automation, better use of
existing resources, and ways to leverage new capabilities like connected
healthcare systems to deliver better outcomes to more patients. This
includes automated data collection, rather than manual measurement
and recording of information into records.
❖ Increased Awareness: Simply having data available allows physicians to
measure conditions and outcomes on a more regular basis. But, it
doesn’t have to place an additional burden on doctors. Rather,
connected healthcare enables measurement and data collection
remotely – whether that’s automated thanks to wearable and connected
devices and apps, or through manual entry into patient portals or apps –
and the sharing of information between doctors and patients.
Cons
❖ Data Classification: Big data is a massive, less structured and
heterogeneous. As such, there is a need to identify and classify the data
so that it can be used effectively. However, it is laborious to search for
specific data in big data. The big data also required to be contextualized
or pooled together so that it will become more relevant to specific
individuals or groups.
❖ Data Modeling: Although big data is excellent for modeling and
simulation, there is a need to identify, structure and pool the proper
relevant data so that it can be used to model the problems, which later
can be used for intervention. Without properly structured data, it is
challenging to analyze and visualize the output and to extract specific
information or data.
❖ Cloud Storage: Cloud storage can be used to upload data or having the
whole system designed in the cloud. Thus, the cloud will need to have
sufficient space for the storage and sufficient speed for data upload at
the same time. The storage apart involving word documentations, should
also able to store graphic types such as X-ray, CT or MRI. The system
should also be able to generate graphics presentations from the
available data so that clinicians are able to visualize and understand
quickly and take prompt decisions.
❖ Data Accommodation: One simplified big data system is required to
accommodate all the data and it has to be compatible and simplified. This
is to ensure that the users are able to retrieve the information without any
hassle. It is a difficult task to get all the relevant systems to link to each
other.
❖ Security: Now the first and foremost issue that arises with the Big Data
concept is its security. Since the big data contained the subject’s
personal information and their health history, it is important for the
database to be protected from hacking, cyber theft, and phishing, where
the stolen data can be sold for a huge sum. Apart from the health
information and personal information from the health system which can
be hacked or stolen, other big data in other commercial organizations
such as telecommunications companies (telcos), banks or financial
institutions are also vulnerable without the knowledge of the clients.
Now, as security issues of healthcare data arises, here comes the
concept of Data Breaching.
A medical data breach is a data breach of health information and could
include either the personal health information of any individual's
electronic health record or medical billing information from their health
insurance.
Between 2009 and 2018 there have been 2,546 healthcare data
breaches involving more than 500 records. Those breaches have
resulted in the theft/exposure of 189,945,874 healthcare records. That
equates to more than 59% of the population of the United States.
Healthcare data breaches are now being reported at a rate of more than
once per day.
Data breach incidents in India higher than the global
average
“Healthcare data are attractive to cyber-criminals because they contain
financial and personal data, can be used for blackmail, and most
valuable, are ideal for fraudulent billing”.
The rapid digitization of the healthcare industry has led to a huge
increase in the number of ransomware, malware and targeted attacks,
which puts confidential patient data like personal details, medical history
and financial information at risk. The healthcare systems are emerging as
an attractive industry for hackers to target with each stolen medical
record fetching from anywhere US$50 up to US$ 20,000, according to
industry estimates.
Security Breach is higher in India because they have been spending their
budget either in the wrong places or were more focussed only at the
endpoints.
"Around 52 percent of Indian respondents reported a data breach last
year, way above the global average of around 36 percent. A full three
quarters (75 percent) of respondents in India reported data breach at
some time in the past, compared with just 67 percent globally."
Some real-life incidents of Data Breach in Healthcare Sector Of India are
as follows:
● A technical error led to the records of 12.5 million pregnant women being
publically accessible earlier this year, as well as information about
practitioners. It took more than three weeks for the data to be erased
after the breach was first identified. Fortunately, there were no reports at
the time of the data being misused. A past incident in Maharashtra saw
more than 35,000 patient records compromised due to a security breach.
● In April 2018, it was found that Andhra Pradesh government websites
were leaking Aadhaar numbers of women, their reproductive history from
pregnancy to delivery, whether they had had an abortion, and so on. It
also tracked the infants’ early years and vaccinations.
● In June 2018, a public website run by the Andhra Pradesh government
tracked state-run ambulances in real-time, allowing anyone with an
internet connection to monitor the movement of these vehicles and
obtain sensitive information about the patient — such as the pick-up
point, why the ambulance was called, and the hospital to which the
patient was taken.
● The same month, an unsecured Andhra Pradesh government website
exposed the names and numbers of every person who purchased
medicines, including those who bought Suhagra (a medicine for erectile
dysfunction) from government-run stores. A dashboard on the Anna
Sanjivini website allowed anyone with an Internet connection to access
details including the names and phone numbers of every person who
bought medicines from every single such store.
Problem Statement
Suppose a hacker gets positive results in seeking the Healthcare
Database of a region with let’s say ‘X’ hospitals of your state. Now, as
mentioned earlier in the theory that, through that database, anyone can
break the backbone of the proper functioning of the healthcare sector in
that region.
So, now addressing the problem of a data breach in the healthcare
sector, particularly in India suggest some changes and alternatives need
to be thought of and implemented at the grassroots. This includes
challenging the existing laws and norms and providing a better
technological solution to deal with this solution.
● Suggest some technological advancements that can be implemented to
cope up with the problem.
● Suggest norms and policies that can help to keep a check on this
problem which can be taken under the supervision of the Government of
India.
● How easy is it for anyone with malicious intent to breach into the data
servers of Indian government bodies.
● Comment on the challenges that arise while providing security to the
healthcare sector.
Guidelines
● Eligibility: Students pursuing Undergraduate/Master’s Degree in any
discipline.
● Team Size: Maximum size up to 3 members.
● No Double Troubles: Only one entry would be acceptable. In the case of
multiple entries, by default, the first one would be taken for granted.
● Zero Plagiarism: The documents would be tested via special software for
plagiarism. If some duplication would be found, the entire work would be
rejected from the competition.
● Multistage Rules: The event is comprised of 2 stages.
Queries:
For any query, you can contact the event coordinator:
Vanshaj Goyal | +91-7976358793
Or mail your queries with Subject “Query | EVENT NAME | Cogni ID |
Team Name” to events@cognizance.org.in