GigaOM Research Sector RoadMapTM highlights

Health care and big data in 2012 by GigaOM Research analyst Jody Ranck, DrPH

Executive Summary

A perfect storm of mobile data, scientific progress and increasing complexity in data has placed the health care industry on the verge of a data deluge. This Sector RoadMap report, which provides a snapshot of the key competitive market areas, explores some of the factors creating new opportunities for success in health data and analytics.

Trends and drivers

•  The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the creation of accountable care organizations

•  Big data transforming other sectors •  Dramatic growth in health data and the need to manage

and use data •  Fraud and inefficiencies •  End of the Blockbuster-drug era

Challenges

•  Unstructured data •  Enterprise-wide data-management policies •  Shortage of health informatics and data-science

specialists •  Ownership, stewardship, and governance of data •  Interoperability and legacy systems

Disruption vectors

We identified five competitive areas — what we call disruption vectors — where the key players will strive to gain an advantage in the health care and big data sectors:

• Data integration and interoperability • Data analytics • Risk analysis and predictive modeling • Fraud detection and inefficiencies • Consumer analytics and information asymmetries

Sector RoadMap

Big data health care platform vendors scored against disruption vectors

•  Number indicates company’s relative strength across all vectors •  Size of ball indicates company’s relative strength along individual vector

Companies to watch

Apixio Truven Health Analytics Explorys LexisNexis AgeTak IBM: Watson and Netezza Humedica GNS Healthcare

Predilytics Health Fidelity Castlight Health PrimerLife Cloudera 100Plus Predixion Software

Conclusion

•  Health care is still in the early days of using big data and analytics models derived from big data tools.

•  Many startups are hesitant to invest in this sector, due to the regulatory challenges with HIPAA as well as the degree of fragmentation and the traditionally slow adoption of new technologies.

•  These are all barriers to entry, but for those willing to take a risk, the overall business opportunity in health care is strong.

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