Providing better health care quality at lower cost will be the key aim of all health economies over the next 20 years, and data analytics will play a powerful role. Its greatest impact will be less retrospective (what happened), and more predictive (what might happen) and prescriptive (what could happen).

Combined with precision medicine based on molecular profiling, data analytics will help drive change that benefits all who receive, deliver, and pay for healthcare. 

Given that health data provides such a vital resource, but also contains some of the most sensitive information available, this paper offers key considerations for improving privacy and security postures in a continuously evolving landscape.

This is the first in our viewpoint series on “Data and the Future of Healthcare,” and will be followed by papers on secondary uses for health data, and innovative ways of using predictive analytics to achieve needed transformation in healthcare.