Application Areas of Predictive Analytics in Healthcare

Applying predictive analytics on large datasets to predict future behaviour is common in finance and industry. This enables companies to act rather proactive than reactive. Adapting such procedures for healthcare systems can hold potential for both the effectiveness of clinical outcome and healthcare management. In order to identify suitable applications an empirical study following a qualitative approach was conducted. First abstract application areas were derived from literature (e.g. prediction of cancer). Then prospective scenarios for the use of predictive analytics were derived from qualitative data, as e.g. prediction of bowel cancer. These rather specific scenarios were clustered using the abstract application areas. An ABC-Analysis was conducted and application areas were then evaluated in-depth using appropriate criteria. The results indicate a wide rage of possible applications that emphasise the demand for further research.