Spend a little while following the #bigdata hashtag on Twitter and you won’t hear a lot about healthcare.
That’s a little surprising given big data‘s supposed promise to healthcare: A McKinsey report somewhat famously claimed that if the U.S. healthcare industry were to use big data better to drive efficiency and quality, the sector could create more than $300 billion in value every year.
Instead, those looking to stay up on the latest healthcare big data buzz would do better to follow the #healthdata hashtag.
Or you could start by following these five Twitter users. (Note: This list includes only individually branded Twitter accounts. Company-branded accounts such as @Explroys and @OptumInsight could also be of interest.)
Jason H. Moore: Moore is the only member of SAP’s Top 50 Big Data influencers to include a mention of healthcare or medicine in his Twitter self-description, so it seems appropriate to start this list with him. Moore is director of Dartmouth College’s Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Sciences. He’s a frequent tweeter and enjoys hashtags such as #genetics and #bioinformatics.
Guy Shechter: Shechter is a healthcare strategist who works as Philips Healthcare’s senior director of medical affairs. He recently drew some attention for his role with the No Sleep Kills website, which could develop into a big data project that would show an association between sleep apnea testing and reduced health costs. “The whole goal of getting more health data digital is so you can start doing meaningful things with data,” he told Computerworld.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Deven McGraw: McGraw’s @HealthPrivacy handle shows where her priorities stand. She’s director of the health privacy project at the Center for Democracy & Technology and focuses on security issues around electronic health data. Earlier this month, she joked that she was missing church to have a conversation about meaningful use — and that God would understand.
Mark Scrimshire: Scrimshire is “chief instigator” with the nonprofit HealthCamp Foundation, which backs what it calls “un-conferences” designed to bring together diverse groups of people from inside and outside the health sector to promote patient engagement. The foundation also acts as a think tank and consultant to health organizations, and advises on social media and community-based initiatives to boost consumer engagement.
Todd Park: As the federal government’s chief technology officer, Park tweets about far more than big data in healthcare and he’s not a frequent user of hashtags. Nonetheless, his support of open data initiatives and the Blue Button program — plus his call for “badass innovators” to become Presidential Innovation Fellows — helps land him on this list. Park’s colleague, national health IT coordinator Farzad Mostashari, is also worth a follow.
