Thanks to medical research and innovation, heart surgery and stroke victims have shorter operating times with smaller incisions and sharpened techniques. The progress in this medical field has saved many lives, as well as allowed patients to get back on their feet much faster compared to a decade ago. As this book is being written, a friend had just experienced a minor stroke that progressed to a massive stroke within hours after being admitted to the ER. Stroke happens when a blood vessel feeding the brain gets clotted or bursts. He felt numbness on the right side of his body and had collapsed at home while trying to get back into bed. In the ER, the doctors operated on him with two small incisions to unblock the blood flow to his brain. Within hours he was awake and was able to go home within a day. After two days he was on his feet and back to work. It is truly a testament to how far medical procedures have progressed. Researchers are still investigating ways to make things better and more efficient in this field since stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States.
Of all the ways healthcare has evolved over the years, health technology, medical research, and medical procedures have made the biggest impact. Patients, medical professionals, and healthcare organizations all benefit from these advancements. In addition, these three areas will change and advance even more and make healthcare better for all.
The topic of healthcare has gained a lot of attention in the United States and around the world. Discussions in healthcare can be highly controversial, debatable, and personal. On the other hand, these healthy conversations can be very engaging, uplifting, and impactful. Consumers and healthcare organizations are taking notice of this matter and have begun to acknowledge how healthcare affects everyone on a global scale. The healthcare industry is fascinating for its growth, demand, and influences. In examining the healthcare industry more closely, let's start with its market size and consistent growth.
GROWTH IN HEALTHCARE
The healthcare sector is a multi-trillion-dollar industry that continues to grow exponentially. Research studies and reports consistently show that the healthcare industry is not slowing down anytime soon. A recent 2018 study published by Deloitte, a consulting company, in collaboration with The Economist Intelligence Unit, reported double-digit growth from 2015 to 2020. In 2015, the global healthcare market was US$7.077 trillion and is expected to grow to US$8.734 trillion by 2020.1 Another study and report recently revealed that the global healthcare industry will swell to US$11.801 trillion by 2021.2 Healthcare is currently ranked the number-one industry driving the United States economy above technology, construction, and retail, based on data and industry perspectives from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.3
There are many reasons for the enormous growth in the healthcare sector. The primary reason is an aging population that requires diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases or illnesses. The healthcare industry offers products and services to treat patients like us (you and me) with preventive, curative, and rehabilitative care for physical and mental impairments. These products and services are in high demand from the aging population, which uses healthcare the most. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control, citizens over the age of 65 experience three times more hospital days than the general population. From the same source, folks who are over 75 years of age have four times more hospital days compared to other population groups. As we age, healthcare becomes more essential in our daily lives.
Another reason for the growth in healthcare is the rise of chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. According to Centers for Disease Control, six in ten adults have a chronic disease and four in ten have more than two chronic diseases in the United States. Diabetes is considered one of the top three diseases and diagnoses continue to increase. The International Diabetes Federation predicts that the number of people around the world who have diabetes will expand from 425 million in 2017 to 625 million by 2045, which is a staggering 47% increase in less than 20 years. Much of the chronic illnesses are attributed to poor nutrition, lack of exercise, and excessive alcohol and tobacco use.
Similarly, heart disease is also on the rise. The American Heart Association expects the number of people who have heart disease in the United States to escalate from 6.5 million between 2011 and 2014 to 8 million by 2030, making it another chronic disease that has double-digit growth of 23% in less than 15 years. The cost of caring for these types of conditions will lead to drastic growth in healthcare spending, higher expenses for patients and families, and added costs for providers.
Another rise in healthcare diagnoses and growing concern is mental diseases, which affect millions globally. While diabetes and heart disease have some type of treatment and/or cure, mental diseases such as dementia or Alzheimer's are often untreatable. This chronic disease has personally affected me. Several of my sponsors who brought me to America have been diagnosed with dementia. As many of you know, once a person close to you or a loved one is diagnosed with this chronic disease, it is heartbreaking to see how quickly that person's wellbeing and memory deteriorate. One minute they can recognize you and be very sound in their communication, then the next minute you are a stranger and there is no recollection of short-term memory. It is very hard to carry on a conversation and a struggle for the patient to find the words to converse with you. Mental illness is debilitating and drains the physical and emotional aspects of the patient, their family, and loved ones who are providing care.
Having witnessed this awful disease and cared for a loved one, it is extremely depressing that there is no cure in sight for dementia that is affecting millions of senior citizens. In 2017, Alzheimer's Disease International did a study and reported that there were about 50 million people living with dementia. In the same report from the same organization, it is projected that more than 125 million people will have dementia by 2050. This chronic condition will contribute to the rapid increase of healthcare expenses. It was reported in the same study that one trillion dollars was spent on treating and caring for dementia patients in 2017.
As the healthcare industry continues to grow and the demand remains high for services, there are many factors to consider. These factors all begin with data from you and me, who are the end users in a complex healthcare system. Let's examine what healthcare providers such as Cleveland Clinic are doing to improve healthcare with data and analytics.
HEALTHCARE DATA
Data exists in every organization, whether it is in finance, manufacturing, retail, or government and it is no different in healthcare. Data is even more critical in healthcare since data is turned into information that clinicians rely on to make informed decisions that can mean life or death. Because we are collecting many more data (from telehealth, images, mobile devices, sensors, etc.) than ever before and the speed at which we collect the data has significantly increased, data volumes have grown exponentially. In particular, healthcare providers have at least doubled their data volumes in less than 24 months, which is beyond what Moore's law (that the rate of change doubles in 24 months) had predicted over 50 years ago. With the pace of change accelerating faster than ever, healthcare providers are looking for the latest, proven innovation in technologies to better manage all of the data and apply analytics to help transform every challenge into opportunities to impact positively the patient's experience.
The data explosion in healthcare exacerbates the challenges that healthcare organizations are facing. IDC, a research firm, conducted a study in April 2014 and reported that healthcare data grows to 2,314 exabytes or 2.314 zettabytes (which has 21 zeros) in 2020. To give you a sense of how much data this is, the report illustrated an analogy to where all of the patient data stored in tablet computers would stack up to 82,000 miles high. This is equivalent to a third of the way to the moon. Data in healthcare is expected to continue to increase by 48% annually and much of the data will be in an unstructured format