How Data Science Is Transforming Health Care: Solving The Wanamaker Dilemma

How Data Science Is Transforming Health Care: Solving The Wanamaker DilemmaIn the early days of the 20th century, department store magnate John Wanamaker famously said, "I know that half of my advertising doesn't work. The problem is that I don't know which half." That remained basically true until Google transformed advertising with AdSense based on new uses of data and analysis. The same might be said about healthcare and it's poised to go through a similar transformation as new tools, techniques, and data sources come on

In the early days of the 20th century, department store magnate John Wanamaker famously said, "I know that half of my advertising doesn't work. The problem is that I don't know which half." That remained basically true until Google transformed advertising with AdSense based on new uses of data and analysis. The same might be said about healthcare and it's poised to go through a similar transformation as new tools, techniques, and data sources come on line. Soon we'll make policy and resource decisions based on much better understanding of what leads to the best outcomes, and we'll make medical decisions based on a patient's specific biology. The result will be better health at less cost.'-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: "Open Sans"; font-size: 13px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding: 6px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'This paper explores how data analysis will help us structure the business of health care more effectively around outcomes, and how it will transform the practice of medicine personalizing for each specific patient.'-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: "Open Sans"; font-size: 13px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding: 6px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media Inc. Considered many to be the best computer book publisher in the world, O'Reilly Media also hosts conferences on technology topics, including the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, Strata: The Business of Data, the Velocity Conference on Web Performance and Operations, and many others.'-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: "Open Sans"; font-size: 13px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding: 6px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'Mike Loukides is an editor for O'Reilly Media, Inc.. He is the author of System Performance Tuning and UNIX for FORTRAN Programmers. Mike's interests are system administration, networking, programming languages, and computer architecture. His academic background includes degrees in electrical engineering (B.S.) and English literature (Ph.D.).'-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: "Open Sans"; font-size: 13px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding: 6px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);'Julie Steele is Director of Marketing at Manifold, an artificial intelligence engineering services firm with offices in Boston and Silicon Valley. Julie was Director of Communications at Silicon Valley Data Science (SVDS), where she was instrumental in developing a strong sense of brand through content and design. Her experience on both sides of the content creation process began when she worked at O'Reilly, first as an Acquisitions Editor and then on the Strata conferences.Colin Hill is the president, chairman and co-founder of GNS Healthcare. He brings years of hands-on scientific experience to his role, with expertise in the areas of computational physics and systems biology. Colin is a frequent speaker at international scientific and industry conferences and has appeared in numerous publications and television segments including The Wall Street Journal, CNBC Morning Call, Nature, Forbes, Wired, and The Economist.