Study Linking Hypertension to Increased Risk of Dementia Highlights Need for Faster, More Actionable Data
In 2020, the world generated 2.5 quintillion (18 zeroes!) bytes of data daily. That means, on average, every human created at least 1.7 megabytes of data per second.¹
In healthcare, the volume of data created continues to grow exponentially and shows no signs of slowing. The development and adoption of digital health solutions, wearables, and always-on treatment options continues to promote stronger health awareness and accountability for patients, and it provides the initial data necessary to understand an individual’s comprehensive healthcare picture.
However, the fractured and siloed healthcare industry tends to use numerous, unintegrated technologies and platforms. This means that while healthcare is constantly generating tons of potentially useful data, that data is disparate, disconnected, and unclean. In fact, due to the myriad of vendors, rules, and obsolete processes that may not take into account end uses, only about 14% of all clinical data is considered actionable.
What does that mean for patients–the most important stakeholder of all? We know they’re hungry for information: An estimated 7% of Google’s daily searches are health related. That equates to 70,000 searches each minute!² And yet, they have little useful data at their disposal.
In a previous blog, we discussed the latest U.S. Preventative Task Force recommendations for screening for Type 2 diabetes and the importance of early behavioral interventions. Now, a new study reaffirms the importance of regular health check-ups and managing one’s own health as early as possible.
An article published in Hypertension, a journal of the American Heart Association, reported worrisome new results for adults diagnosed with hypertension between ages 35 and 44. Researchers found those adults had smaller brain sizes and were more likely to be diagnosed with dementia compared to adults their age with normal blood pressure.” If this is proven, it would provide some important evidence to suggest earlier intervention to delay the onset of hypertension, which may, in turn, be beneficial in preventing dementia,” said senior study author Dr. Mingguang He, a professor of ophthalmic epidemiology at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Having curated data sooner–within days of service, can help with early disease detection and outreach. Verinovum’s Data Curation as a Service (DCaaS) solution platform can make data more useful and actionable.
Payers, providers, and HIT leaders alike struggle to conduct timely and efficient patient outreach. There’s often a lag in the data received, making it difficult to identify issues and intervene at the right time. Our InFocus Cohort solution gives you precision information quickly, in near-real time, so you can pivot to at-risk members and extract timely insights to intervene effectively. InFocus Cohort gives you daily flags for your population recently diagnosed with diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, ESRD, or other disease states, depending on your areas of focus and most pressing needs.
InFocus Cohort helps your team:
- Intervene with at-risk patients earlier
- Gain visibility into population health trends
- Move the needle on the disease states that have the strongest financial impact
- Receive data in near real time
¹ https://the-tech-trend.com/reviews/how-much-data-is-produced-every-day/