Hitachi leading the charge of big data ito disease prevention

Hitachi has become the latest firm to invest heavily in chronic disease prevention and the UK NHS could be one of the first to benefit from the company’s new solutions.

The company’s Hitachi Consulting arm told NHS commissioners at the Commissioning Show in London about the world-class technology that is being used to anticipate and prevent chronic conditions such as diabetes before they develop.

“Hitachi will work in partnership with key stakeholders in the health economy to develop an approach which enables improved targeting of patients and better monitoring of their care through intelligent data management in a safe and secure environment,” stated Mark Hill, VP of business intelligence and analytics at Hitachi.

The firm’s main data-led project involves a proof of concept partnership with the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre and NorthWest EHealth [NWEH] that aims to tackle type two diabetes.

Hitachi’s project uses various sets of data to identify those people that are at risk of developing type two diabetes and relays this back to the NHS. It’s then down to the health authorities to target those members of the public at risk and then commission lifestyle interventions designed to stop the onset of the disease.

It’s hoped that Hitachi’s technology will allow the NHS to reduce the £14 billion that it currently shells out on an annual basis when treating type two diabetes and related conditions such as eye and coronary problems.

“We are proud to be working with NWEH pioneering data solutions which will help commissioners to address some of the current fundamental challenges for the NHS and to transform outcomes for patients through the use of technology,” said David Borris, business intelligence consultant at Hitachi Consulting.