Healthcare's Big Problem With Little Data

Every year, the analyst firm Gartner publishes between 90 and 100 “Hype Cycles” with insight on about 1,900 different technologies. The Hype Cycle above is the one for Emerging Technologies for 2012 (published in August) and shows “Big Data” heading toward the “Peak of Inflated Expectations.”

According to Gartner, Big Data has about 2-5 years before reaching it’s ”Plateau of Productivity.” That’s the enviable point at which a technology finally delivers predictable value. The promise of Big Data, of course, is a treasure trove of high value across many industries  – including healthcare. Everything from predictive and prescriptive analytics to population health, disease management, drug discovery and personalized medicine (delivered with much greater precision and higher efficacy) to name but a few.

Like many emerging technologies, the future here is brilliant and chock-full of headlines highlighting all the rich rewards ahead. In the meantime, however, ”little data” in healthcare continues to give us all peptic ulcers.