Four real-world examples of the power of cloud analytics
My colleague Tom Lawry recently wrote about the top five reasons health organizations are using analytics cloud services and how to navigate your own journey.
To round out this cloud analytics blog series, I’m thrilled to share some real-world examples. The following customer stories demonstrate just how powerful-yet easy to use and cost-effective-cloud analytics can be in helping health organizations further their top priorities:
Advancing medical and clinical research
At Virginia Tech, cloud analytics contributes to genetic research with the aim of improving personalized medicine and the long-term possibility of creating individually tailored medical treatments.
DNA sequencing analysis can lead to medical and pharmaceutical breakthroughs, but it requires supercomputing resources and Big Data storage that many researchers lack. So computer scientists at Virginia Tech developed an on-demand, cloud-computing model using the Microsoft Azure HDInsight Service. Researchers now have easier, cost-effective access to DNA sequencing tools and resources, which could lead to faster advancements in medical research.
“Azure is enabling us to keep up with the data deluge in the DNA sequencing space,” says Wu Feng, Professor of Computer Science, Virginia Tech. “We’re not only analyzing data faster, but analyzing it more intelligently.”
Increasing operational efficiency
Norway’s Oslo University Hospital can bring together and visualize analysis of data from dispersed healthcare practices faster than ever using Microsoft Power BI for Office 365, a cloud-based self-service analytics tool. “With Power BI, we can understand what is happening in the departments in a few hours, rather than after months,” says Eli Marie Sager, MD, Chief Executive Officer, Clinic for Diagnostics and Intervention, Oslo University Hospital.
Improving clinical quality and efficiency
The North Tees and Hartlepool National Health Services Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom wanted to improve clinical outcomes and efficiency. To help achieve its goal, North Tees is advancing its use of analytics by combining data from its internal clinical system with data from external sources, such as publicly available data on the activity of general practitioners. Professor Philip Dean is the head of the Department of Pharmacy and Quality Control Laboratory Services at North Tees and Hartlepool National Health Services Trust. Using Power BI, Dean correlated independent weather data with his institution’s own data to identify the impact of inclement weather on the frequency of respiratory disease. In addition, he integrated treatment data to understand which drugs were being prescribed and how prescription patterns varied by locality.
“Linking data for analyses was something we couldn’t do before,” says Dean. “With Power BI, it’s simple. Power BI makes the hard things easy. Everything becomes possible.”
Managing the Internet of Things
Millions of asthma sufferers worldwide depend on Aerocrine monitoring devices to diagnose and treat their disease effectively. The devices are sensitive to small changes in ambient environment, so Aerocrine is using a cloud analytics solution to boost reliability. As a result, the company can see data from the devices in real time. This helps Aerocrine relay valuable information from their customer service team to end users on the fly and predict when consumable sensors will need to be replenished. All this enhances the device quality, user experience, and Aerocrine’s business model.
“With the Microsoft Azure solution, we are getting much deeper analysis into our devices,” says Anders Murman, Aerocrine’s Chief Technology Officer. “That means we can better identify the trigger points that are affecting device performance.”
How are cloud analytics helping you achieve your health organization’s priorities in ways never before possible? We’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line via email, Facebook, or Twitter.
