Scalable Data Analytics for Healthcare Part 2: Turning Insight Into Action

This is Part 2 in our three-part series on Scalable Data Analytics for Healthcare. In this post, we explore how modern data platforms built on the Lakehouse architecture enable advanced analytics to drive operational efficiency, real-time clinical insights, and patient-centered care.

When it comes to the role of a scalable data platform for healthcare analytics, organizations need to have a single source of truth. This means you need to establish a centralized data Lakehouse environment. The key is to have a unified view of your patient and organizational data.

Healthcare organizations require a centralized, unified view of patient and operational data to enable real-time analytics. This capability allows enterprise stakeholders to make faster decisions and generate predictive insights that drive meaningful outcomes. A scalable Lakehouse architecture supports this by delivering analytics at scale across the organization.

Interoperability is another crucial aspect; organizations must ensure that all their data sources are seamlessly integrated, not just within their healthcare organization, but also with data from trusted external sources and organizations. Consider adopting open standards like HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) and/or the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Common Data Model (CDM) to enhance interoperability across systems and vendors. Secure data sharing enables cross-functional collaboration across the organization and allows users to identify correlations and trends among data sets from different business units.

Scalability is the third key factor, especially with data growing at such a rapid pace and as you try to ingest various formats of data – structured, semi-structured, or unstructured. Your solution should be able to handle these data volumes and user demands because, as we know, if you deliver, they will ask for more. So, you need to be ready to meet your stakeholders’ growing needs.

AI is top of mind for healthcare leaders today, and it plays a significant role in healthcare analytics. AI is now in the mainstream, but the key is going to be understanding what it can do. While many use cases are still emerging, it’s clear that AI has the potential to support predictive care, operational efficiency, and research acceleration. AI is absolutely here to stay, and your focus must be on implementing AI responsibly to ensure safety, privacy, and ethical impact when addressing the needs of your patients and organization.

For additional insights on AI ethics, consider reading this publication on Ethical Issues of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and Healthcare.

When it comes to the benefits of advanced analytics in healthcare, curated data sets for domain-specific use cases can accelerate mission-critical insights while reducing your long-term investment cost. In healthcare, data analytics can help us improve patient outcomes because by using advanced data science techniques, you can:

Personalize treatment plans and make early interventions. Patient 360 insights allow you to address the patient’s needs holistically and not just for stand-alone admission needs.

Determine which patients are in the high-risk category for readmission. Machine learning can assist with flagging anomalies to reduce readmission risk, improve patient health, and increase operational efficiencies.

Efficiently provide clinical resource staffing. Based on the incoming needs of patients, clinical staff can be reassigned to different wings or units to proactively support patient influx or specialized cases.

Operational efficiency is another area where data analytics can be beneficial within healthcare. If you have the right data and analyze it to determine how you can optimize your resource allocation and reduce costs, you can identify areas that are costing you more, such as supplies or any other aspect that contributes to your total cost or resource allocation. You can utilize that information to do better and bring those efficiencies.

As you may have heard, population health management is another area where healthcare data analytics can really help. You can identify trends and risk factors across your population to see how you can better deliver services and manage this population more effectively.

Research and development is another area where you are seeing a significant use of data analytics and advanced analytics in healthcare. For example, data science and machine learning are being used to accelerate genomics research, drug discovery, and clinical trials.

These high-impact healthcare use cases can be derived from your existing data sets and rely on your organization having the appropriate infrastructure to enable these analytical insights. They can help you jumpstart and continue to move forward on your cloud, data, and AI journey. This is where the Lakehouse architecture stands out by supporting both operational workloads and advanced analytics in a unified platform.

In Part 1: Healthcare’s Data Dilemma, we discussed the challenges of managing healthcare data and the promise of a unified Lakehouse platform. In Part 2 of this series, we dive deeper into how Data Lakehouse platforms drive advanced analytics and enable real-time, organization-wide decision-making in healthcare. Stay tuned for Part 3, where we’ll walk through how to evaluate, select, and implement the right Lakehouse platform for your organization’s needs.

At FIDES, we partner with healthcare organizations to modernize their analytics stack, align stakeholders, and deliver real outcomes through scalable data platforms. Whether you’re optimizing existing systems or planning for long-term growth, our experts help design and implement Lakehouse-based solutions that are built to scale.

From data architecture and governance to platform scalability and adoption, our team knows how to help organizations turn complex data into clear outcomes.

Whether you’re rethinking your current stack or planning for what’s next, we’ll help you build a foundation that’s ready to grow with your mission.