The Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats Analysis of Big Data Analytics in Healthcare

Improving﻿the﻿performance﻿and﻿reducing﻿the﻿cost﻿of﻿healthcare﻿have﻿been﻿a﻿great﻿concern﻿and﻿a﻿huge﻿challenge﻿for﻿healthcare﻿organizations﻿and﻿governments﻿at﻿every﻿level﻿in﻿the﻿US.﻿Measures﻿taken﻿ have﻿included﻿laws,﻿regulations,﻿policies,﻿and﻿initiatives﻿that﻿aim﻿to﻿improve﻿quality﻿of﻿care,﻿reduce﻿ costs﻿of﻿care,﻿and﻿increase﻿access﻿to﻿care.﻿Central﻿to﻿these﻿measures﻿is﻿the﻿meaningful﻿and﻿effective﻿ use﻿of﻿Big﻿Data﻿analytics.﻿To﻿reap﻿the﻿benefits﻿of﻿big﻿data﻿analytics﻿and﻿align﻿expectations﻿with﻿ results,﻿researchers,﻿practitioners,﻿and﻿policymakers﻿must﻿have﻿a﻿clear﻿understanding﻿of﻿the﻿unique﻿ circumstances﻿of﻿healthcare﻿including﻿the﻿strengths,﻿weaknesses,﻿opportunities,﻿and﻿threats﻿(SWOT)﻿ associated﻿with﻿the﻿use﻿of﻿this﻿emerging﻿technology.﻿Through﻿descriptive﻿SWOT﻿analysis,﻿this﻿article﻿ helps﻿healthcare﻿stakeholders﻿gain﻿awareness﻿of﻿both﻿success﻿factors﻿and﻿issues,﻿pitfalls,﻿and﻿barriers﻿ in﻿the﻿adoption﻿of﻿big﻿data﻿analytics﻿in﻿healthcare.


High Cost of the US Healthcare System
According to a recent report published by The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development(2018),in2017theUSspendingonhealthcarewasthelargest,measuredbyboththe spendingpercapitaandthepercentageofthegrossdomesticproduct(GDP)amongits37member nations.Figure1showsthattheUSspentover$10,000percapitaonhealthcarethatyear,orabout 17%ofGDP.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.2017 health spending per capita as share of GDP (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2018, p. 2)

Figure
Figure 3.The SWOT matrix

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Summary of the SWOT analysis on big data analytics in healthcare

4.2. Prevalence of electronic Health Records Electronic
Health Records (EHR) evolved from traditional Electronic Medical Records (EMR).
. In his capacity as a principal systems engineer, Dr. Wang advises the federal government on IT Acquisition & Modernization, Data Analytics & Knowledge Management, and Emerging Technology Evaluation & Adoption.Previously, Dr. Wang worked for Lockheed Martin Corporation and participated in multiple largescale IT projects for the federal government.Dr. Wang is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), a certified SAFe Agilist (SA), and currently serves on the Editorial Review Board for the International Journal of Patient-Centered Healthcare (IJPCH) by IGI Global and the Issues in Information System (IIS) by the International Association for Computer Information Systems (IACIS).Dr. Wang holds a Bachelor of Engineering in MIS from Tsinghua University, a Master of Art in Economics and a Master of Science in Statistics both from the University of Toledo, an MBA in Finance from Loyola University Maryland, and a Doctor of Science in Information Systems and Communications from Robert Morris University.