Big Data: Application In Government, Healthcare And Auditing

Digital information is produced by apps, cameras, online searches, social media, website visits and more. It contains a variety of data in increasing volumes and high velocity. This is known as the 3 Vs. Volume is when the amount of data matters — some organizations may have terabytes of data and others, petabytes. The rate at which data is received is known as Velocity. Some products allow real time evaluation and action of the data rather than waiting for it to be written to the disk. Finally, variety indicates the many types of data that is available. Traditional is structured and organised accurately in a relational database whereas unstructured and semi-structured data types (text and audio) needs to be preprocessed to acquire the meaning.

Large data is define to be data that consists of single type and/or limited type of information that has been collected and used within the originally visualised context. This can also be the scaling up of a simple idea. Whereas big data looks deeper than just the surface of information; it is data about the relationships between different types of information. (Harkness.T)

The government has increasingly been looking into big data especially within the sectors of healthcare, education and security. One is the ownership of the data; the general public needs to be assured about the use of their information and who’s controlling it. Their information can be collected through the daily use of social media, credit cards and generally the internet. The government, central bankers and statistics agencies are now starting to be introduced in the field of big data in order to comprehend the economic tides better and more quickly. This may have significant public policy changes and implications.

Furthermore, predictive modelling is also used by the government for prevention of certain crimes. For example, the police department use predictive models for hot spot analysis and also data mining to identify any fraudulent links between businesses and companies and known features of offenders. This will substantially improve effectiveness and efficiency of the justice system.

However, discovering these trends may introduce potential risks and challenges. The governments main priority should be the citizens as they should focus on their needs, behaviour and their satisfaction. There are many disadvantages such as privacy concerns from the citizens and the risk of failing to identify some citizens within the population.

Positive and life-saving outcomes have been shown through the application of big data analytics in healthcare. Big data technologies have aided the healthcare system and organisations to merge and analyse data in order to discover trends, find ways of treating a patient more effectively and to make predictions.

The new MACRA requirements is a result of big data being introduced into the healthcare sector. To update the standards for patient billing and to reward healthcare facilities that were providing outstanding patient care, the government introduced the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorisation Act.

Big data in the field of medicine, allows the ability to provide more precise treatments for patients. The care and treatments provided will be more accurate and personalised. The implication of the use of big data within the healthcare system is that the doctors are able to see a complete and detailed picture of patients and the population which means that they can treat a patient with a specific treatment or even recognise an at-risk patient before any health issues appear.

Another benefit of big data is population health management. As well as improving patient outcomes, they are able to aggregate cost-related data and become more cost-effective by discarding irrelevant and unnecessary medical procedures. An example of this is the state of Rhode Island who partnered with InterSystems to use its HealthShare Active Analytics tool. They performed the collection and analysis of patient data on a state-wide level. “The state’s Quality Institute then found that about 10% of major lab tests performed in over 25% of the state’s population were medically unnecessary.” (Software Advice) This finding has allowed the reduction of unnecessary medical procedures as well as improved patient care.

Data analytics tools can also help with more accurate diagnoses. These systems allow the filtering and sorting of expansive databases in order to swiftly analyse all of the information, using algorithms. We are able to notice any trends and using these insights, we are able to determine more accurate treatment for specific patients or a group of patients. An example of this may be “asthma”. Many patients are diagnosed with asthma and using data analytic tools we are able to detect and diagnose multiple variants of asthma with different treatment pathways for each.

In auditing, big data can produce data that is specific which aids with the experience for the client and the auditor. Performance can be increased and with the assistance of big data with the correct analytic tools, trends can be discovered which will improve customer experience. Also traditional methods of audit and increasing volumes of data implies that the results are insufficient as businesses expect valuable insights. With the addition of data analytics to big data, the auditing process is rebuilding and slowing working its way up from sample testing to data-driven population-level audit.

Another way big data has greatly impacted the audit practice and other businesses is the significant amount of complexity in a client’s business environment. An auditor must be able to understand the client’s business fully in order to identify risks and skeptical transactions. For example, big data has been used by Netflix for title analysis in it’s TV show covers to further understand their customer’s viewing habits. Activities that challenge the customer’s preference can be recognised as a risk, by the auditor.

“Data is at the heart of accounting, and therefore big data can help accountants deliver more value to businesses.” (ICAEW) Big data in Accounting allows accountants to use different sources of data and analytics tools to improve forecasting. They can use more real-time data and non-financial data. “This can help accountants provide greater assurance over financial statements, improve their management of financial resources and increase the decision support that they can give business functions.”(ICAEW)

Risks may develop as the impact of big data grows; financial reports may become insignificant for investors and stakeholders. For example, the use of alternative data and predictive models which may be used by investors to identify opportunities to generate profits.