Big data could mean big savings in healthcare

Properly exploiting big data in health care could mean up to $450 billion in savings health care organizations and consumers according to a recent report from consulting firm McKinsey. But don't get too excited yet – that data-optimized future isn't just going to fall in our laps. An abundance of newly available information — from research and development data aggregated by pharmaceutical companies to digitized patient records to recently-released health information from the federal government and other public sources — combined with new technology has the potential to transform health. But, according to the report, to really "jujitsu" that data (as the country's CTO Todd Park likes to say), the industry may need to shift its thinking and scale some obstacles first.