Coronavirus Kindles Innovative Business Use Cases for Big Data Analytics

The pandemic caused by novel coronavirus is evaluating new-age technologies including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, Robotics, Big Data Analytics and significant others at scale. In the current crisis, however, AI, Robotics and most importantly Big Data Analytics, have emerged more victorious than others. Where Robots are being deployed at the hospital to serve staff and patients while reducing human exposure to the virus, big data analytics is driving a greater purpose as well. Moreover, AI is being leveraged to augment the innovations brought in by both technologies.

The global outbreak of coronavirus has brought advanced big data analytics tools front and center, with entities from different sectors who are willing to monitor and reduce the impact of this contagion.

Implementation Across Medical Setup

Big data enables the best form of treatment which is personalized care. It helps provide personalized medication as per the patient's lifestyle, genetic endowment, and provenance. Big data-enabled personalization is considered most effective and possibly creates a evident treatment plan and delivery model for quick-paced recovery.

Moreover, it can help healthcare givers to prevent a lapse in treatment. Big Data algorithms are capable of predicting if the patient at high risk with utmost accuracy. The intelligent data outsketched by the technology assists physicians in recommending an ideal medication and follow-up plan. Now with the further advancement in technology Big Data analytics is now perfectly capable of analyzing the sleep pattern of the patients to notify in advance in case of any irregularities.

Potential Business Use Cases of Big Data Analytics

With the advent of data science and advanced analytics, people are able to access tons of data, collected from the various facets and phases of the virus and the disease. One can see this data in various forms and shapes in charts, graphs, and tables, to help visualize the facts in simpler and more practical ways. And John Hopkins's Dashboard is one such innovative example.

From detecting coronavirus through computerized tomography scans to more intelligent contact tracing, to analytics-based cluster predictions, to developing powerful drugs that can tackle this coronavirus – big data analytics along with AI is driving significant use cases for businesses and healthcare providers amid COVID-19. Using big data analytics for contact tracing is imperative to ensure that anyone who has close contact with the infected patients is traced, isolated and monitored for symptoms.

Advancements in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools allow the spread of COVID-19 to be modeled through various spatial and temporal scales. Structured mathematical and statistical techniques, such as Bayesian inference methods facilitate the analysis of infectious disease incidence through time and space. A spatial-temporal mapping tool can allow the user to visualize and scroll by infectious disease incidences through the timeline.

Moreover, the Sankey diagram helps to visualize the flow of patients between various phases of patient journeys. The multidimensional visualizations help to understand the flow and category relationships of patients to specific outcomes. An example is illustrated in a Sankey diagram by WHO, showing patterns of COVID-19 disease progressions in China. The thickness of arrows is indicative of the proportion of patients who died or recovered.

As we evolve through our history, the historical contagion is useful in understanding and predicting the spread among a local population during this COVID-19 outbreak. Identifying 'super-spreaders' or super-spreading events among infected patients can be conveniently studied and visualized from a network perspective.

Furthermore, when a single device is considered the most personal accessory that caters to people of (almost) all ages and demographics, from the youngest to the most elderly, all genders, societal levels, and ethnicities, big data utilizes its data to personalize care and information and further proceeds with effective tracking to monitor the outspread of the virus.