How do business analytics and business intelligence contribute to improve care efficiency?

Abstract

The growth in volume, variety, and velocity of data has created new challenges and opportunities for healthcare contexts. Although Business Analytics (BA) technologies, techniques and tools are becoming recognised to improve the ability to analyse multi-spectral healthcare data, in and of themselves they are not sufficient to realise the full potential and benefits possible which can lead to optimal patient outcomes. In fact, it becomes a strategic necessity to develop a systematic and organising framework to apply BA technologies to a specific clinical context. Hence, this exploratory study is designed to investigate and thereby develop an appropriate organising framework and then a prototype to apply the benefits of the Business Analytics techniques to Healthcare contexts. The chosen clinical context is oncology and the study site is one of the largest private tertiary hospitals in Melbourne, Australia. Given the importance of cancer care, the cost of cancer treatments and the quantity and range of data elements that are generated during the care process, this case study is significant and important.