The concept of "big data" sets, so large that using traditional database management tools to manipulate them becomes awkward, is about to play a whole new role in the provision of health care. Cambia Health Solutions has announced their involvement with GNS Healthcare.
Cambia looks to use GNS Healthcare's big data solutions as a means to bring better, more personal healthcare to their patrons.
Cambia is said to be most interested in GNS Healthcare's REFS (Reverse Engineering Forward Simulation) system. The REFS system allows for the handling of trillions of data points in a bid to find patterns among the seemingly dissimilar data, and in turn create "predictive models" from these data points. Various treatments on a patient can therefore be tried in simulation, attempting to find in advance what the "best" solution to a health care problem is before actually trying it on a flesh and blood patient.
This tailors both firms to a partnership of some sort; GNS has the technology to analyze and create models around enormous quantities of data. Cambia Health Solutions has enormous quantities of patient data as they represent health plans across the Northwest and Intermountain regions of the United States.
Of course, Cambia's provision of that data will come anonymously, lest they incur the wrath of HIPAA. But Cambia's data, provided with full respect toward law and ethic, will put a lot of power in GNS' REFS system. The two ultimately look to provide cost savings and better results for their customers, which in turn will result in a better overall health care system for us all.
The early going seems to be going well, as GNS Healthcare CEO Colin Hill has described the REFS system as like "having a giant magnet" to search for needles in enormous haystacks of data.
Considering that one of the biggest challenges in providing health care in the United States is cost, anything that can be seen to visibly, noticeably, lower costs might sound like a smart idea. And if the combination of GNS Healthcare's REFS system and Cambia's patient data works as well as it's suggested, we may very well be on the cusp of a new, much more efficient and much more effective healthcare system.
Edited by
Braden Becker
