Factors to consider before building an in-house data analytics program.
In medical informatics, unstructured data is in charts, pathology reports and discharge notes. Increasingly, unstructured data is found in telemedicine summaries, smart devices, and social media. While medical charts hold years of patient data, smart technology is adding to the massive amount of unstructured and unexamined information at an alarming rate. All these formats and charts require natural language processing to extract, sort and enable cross-communication for end-users to build on.
Can a complete picture of disease progression be built on a fraction of the readily available structured data?
As a healthcare system or pharmaceutical company, should you venture into the business of extracting and building data platforms or focus on patient health and treatments?
CONSIDER THESE FACTORS:
TIME If not already vested in software development, what can you expect to spend building a data analytics platform? Expect your team to spend six or more months on the project. But the clock is still ticking. Once the platform is up and running and has been tested, it goes to the real users and is likely to come back needing upgrades or fixes. The project isn't a ‘one and done.' Each change to data formats or regulatory mandates or scope of the project means going back to the team. So that team is yours for a long time. Build your own solution and the time spent is yours alone.
The team you'll need:
UI developers,
Software engineers and architects,
Product and project managers,
Frontend and backend developers,
Quality assurance testers,
User support
MONEY The cost of acquiring a development team to build and maintain custom software can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
One client estimated it would have taken a minimum of $500,000 to develop a solution that Melax Tech has already built. By signing on with a data analytics company, personnel costs drop. Software upgrades or fixes are ongoing and available at purchase or through licensing. Even when you need to customize some of the processes, the bulk of the cost of using a pre-built platform is spread over the software company's client base. Build your own solution and the expenses are yours alone.
SCALABILITY Lastly, consider scalability. Machine learning and artificial intelligence are key to improved performance over time. They continually learn.
At Melax Tech, clients benefit from machine learning based on their own protected data and other de-identified samples, pipelines, and formats. Build your own solution and the headaches and risks are yours alone.
Build a Dev Team or Move Directly to Results?
The factors outlined are just a few that go into realizing accurate, timely, cost-effective results. Before moving forward, are you ready to:
Support your in-house user team?
Investing top data personnel?
Future-proof by re-tooling with each new format, regulation or project adjustment?
If you’re in the business of healthcare or pharmaceutical, you want to improve healthcare. Allocate time, talent and budget in a way that makes sense.
Leave NLP to the NLP experts. Request a Demo Today!