Healthcare / Medical
Make critical decisions based on advanced analytics
About the industry
In their 2015 healthcare industry analysis, Franchise Help gives an informative overview of the industry: “Health care can be broadly defined as providing medical products, equipment and services to protect, extend, or increase the quality of patients’ lives. Increasingly, the industry encompasses a network of interrelated providers with different areas of expertise, all coordinated to varying degrees to keep us healthy.
The Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) breaks the space into two broad subgroups:
1. Health Care Equipment and Services
2. Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences
But that hardly tells the whole story. Everything from the physician to the manufacturer of the stethoscope to the x-ray technician play a part. The pharmacist writing prescriptions and the firm databasing medical records all contribute to the complex health care system.
The health care industry is also evolving, and not just through government intervention. More and more, health care is taught as a way of life, rather than as a crisis to be dealt with. Annual doctor visits are increasing and more employers are supporting healthy lifestyles through incentive programs (like gym-membership reimbursement) and employee education initiatives. Consumers, meanwhile, are looking to eat better and exercise more. To meet demand, green industry franchise opportunities have sprung up promoting organic restaurant options and sustainable food practices, while modern fitness franchises have evolved beyond traditional weight rooms and cardio equipment to offer wellness activities like yoga, pilates, and kickboxing, as well as personal training and nutrition consulting services.
Clearly, opportunity is being created both by changes in the health care industry itself and by changes in our own beliefs about well-being, and the result is rising spending on health care products and services of all kinds. Entrepreneurs have responded, finding better solutions to old problems and launching new businesses to meet the needs of an aging but increasingly health-conscious population.”
Industry trends
Bloomberg gives a macro perspective on the Healthcare industry, explaining, “Entering 2015, impacts of the Affordable Care Act will continue to shape the healthcare landscape for both patients and providers. The industry may also see new product launches from medical device companies looking to offset stagnant sales.”
In terms of expansion and job growth within the industry, Forbes writes, “The health care industry remains exceptionally healthy: Hospitals, doctors, and other health care employers added 40,100 jobs in June, the latest big month for one of America’s most crucial economic sectors. Forty-thousand-plus new jobs in one month is a lot, but it’s especially eye-catching because it’s part of a sustained trend: Health care employers have added about 135,000 jobs in the past three months, and nearly 430,000 jobs in the past 12 months. And health care hiring — which had dramatically slowed down across 2013 and 2014 — is now surging again. Health care’s growth rate has essentially tripled what it was a year ago.”
The product innovation, management of patients and providers in terms of the Affordable Care Act, and booming job growth will all contribute to the increased need for analytics within the healthcare and medical industry.
Analytics in the industry
Information Week published an informative article on the emphasis and growing importance of big data within the healthcare industry. The article explains, “With the mandated adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), many healthcare professionals for the first time got centralized access to patient records. Now they’re figuring out how to use all this information. Although the healthcare industry has been slow to delve into big data, that will change [and already has!]. At stake: not only money saved from more efficient use of information, but also new research and treatments — and that’s just the beginning. Having witnessed the impact that big data and analytics have on other markets — and perhaps on competing healthcare organizations — healthcare CEOs want to know how their organizations can use these tools. In a PwC study, 95% of healthcare CEOs said they were exploring better ways to harness and manage big data.”
How do we serve your industry?
As mentioned above, the healthcare and medical industry is beginning to gain a thirst for advanced analytics in order to improve efficiencies, decrease costs, minimize risk, and much more. With the deployment of electronic medical records and other sources of big data for the industry, the data is available but not being used effectively to help healthcare leaders make optimized decisions. Competitive Analytics helps healthcare and medical organizations integrate advanced healthcare analytics with demand forecasting, predictive analytics, risk detection and analysis, demographic analysis, market research, and optimization of manufacturing processes. Competitive Analytics will work with your organization to develop a custom strategic big data and analytics initiative in order to make better, faster, and more profitable decisions . . . and most importantly, improve the health care and quality of life of your patients!