Business Intelligence: Applications in the Healthcare Industry

This report examines the application of Business Intelligence (BI) within the healthcare industry, highlighting its significant benefits and various applications. The report begins by defining BI as a technology-driven process for analyzing data and providing actionable insights to support decision-making. It then discusses the benefits of BI, including improved customer care, better expense allocation, enhanced decision-making processes, identification of new revenue opportunities, and effective tracking of key performance indicators (KPIs). The report further explores specific applications of BI in healthcare, such as performance metrics for patient health, knowledge management systems for improved treatment, decision support systems for better decision-making, expert systems for faster data processing, data mining systems for identifying patterns, and reporting systems for data integration and analysis. The research emphasizes the importance of BI in enabling healthcare organizations to interpret big data, identify opportunities, and implement effective strategies for competitive advantages and long-term stability, supporting a wide range of business decisions from operational to strategic levels.

Running head: BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
Business Intelligence: Health Industry
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
1. Benefits of Business Intelligence.......................................................................................2
2. Explanation of Business Intelligence Application in Health Industry...............................4
Research and Contribution.........................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The business intelligence or BI can be stated as the technology driven procedure to
analyse the data and present the actionable information for the purpose of helping executives,
corporate end users and managers and hence making the informed business decision. Proper
analysis is to be prepared and several queries are developed as well as run and then reports
are created (IşıK, Jones & Sidorova, 2013). The data visualizations and dashboards are also
created for the purpose of making the analytical results accessible and available to the
corporate decision makers or operational workers. The common functionalities of the
technologies of business intelligence are reporting, data mining, bench marking, analytical
processing, predictive analytics, prescriptive analytics and text mining. The following
research report outlines a brief discussion on business intelligence application in the health
industry.
Discussion
1. Benefits of Business Intelligence
For the constant increment in the number of data sources as well as the complexity of
the data that is being generated in all types of organizations; there is a significant requirement
of the advanced analytics for the purpose of supporting the decision making capabilities
(Abelló et al., 2013). The various companies as well as other internationally recognized
organizations eventually need the predictive modelling or the data visualization tools or
techniques from the modernized software applications of business intelligence for gaining the
insights about business growth, customer satisfaction, business operations, and labour
distribution, daily practices of employees as well as administration or management. The
major benefits of the business intelligence or BI for any type of industry are as follows:
i) Develops Efficiency in Customer Care: The first and the foremost advantage of the
business intelligence within the organization or company is that is eventually develops utmost
efficiency and effectiveness for the customer care. The vendors who are working in the
respective company as well as other companies have subsequently observed that the entire
industry comprises of business operational improvement or BOI (Wixom et al., 2014). Hence,
the lack of the business intelligence strategy could be extremely distracting for that particular
industry. With the help of BI, the overall management of the massive amounts of the
structured as well as unstructured data will be extremely easier.

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ii) Better Allocation of Expenses: The second important and significant advantage of
the business intelligence within the specified industry is the better allocation of expenses. For
the several organizations, various financial, functional as well as operational practices are
addressed effectively (Isik, Jones & Sidorova, 2013). These organizations should deploy the
platforms of business intelligence, which eventually allow them in making the most of the
analytical capabilities as well as addressing the major challenges in the respective industry.
iii) Supporting or Improving the Decision Making: Another effective and important
benefit of the business intelligence in the several organizations is to support as well as
improve the entire process of decision making for the business. Some of the basic issues are
being faced in this industry related to equipment, facilities, system operations, employee
practices, risks and various others (Fan, Lau & Zhao, 2015). These types of organizations
would also require a major support of the business intelligence software for the core purpose
of navigating the complexities for the organizational governance. The advanced analytical
capabilities are quite efficient to solve the major challenges and then connecting to the
customers, operational as well as business data.
iv) Identification of new Revenue Opportunities: Another effective and important
advantage of the business intelligence is that it subsequently identifies the new revenue
opportunities (Chang, 2014). Having an ability of analysis of the data, the individual could
easily obtain proper insights regarding the potential opportunities that were previously absent
in the business. The user can even create the new offers for the purpose of adjusting them to
the current situation of market and hence satisfying the customers.
v) Successful Tracking of KPIs: The fifth important and noteworthy advantage of the
business intelligence or BI is the successful tracking of the KPIs or key performance
indicators. Proper notifications and alters are obtained every time when the data is being
changed about any particular key performance indicator (Sauter, 2014). For the presence of
business intelligence, whenever the data is being changed, the user gets proper notifications
and could eventually drill down for checking the requirement and importance of the data.
Following is the summary table of each and every above mentioned advantage of
business intelligence:
Serial
Number
Benefits of Business Intelligence Characteristics of BI Benefits
1. Develops Efficiency in Customer Provides efficiency during customer

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Care care and provides accuracy in data.
Customers get satisfied with the
organizational products and services.
2. Better Allocation of Expenses The organizational costs or expenses
are properly allocated and hence the
organizational employees do not face
any issue (Lim, Chen & Chen, 2013).
3. Supporting or Improving the
Decision Making
The entire decision making process is
improvised and supported with the
help of business intelligence and since
provides accurate data, the decisions
could be easily undertaken without
any kind of issue or complexity.
4. Identification of new Revenue
Opportunities
Several new revenue opportunities are
identified and hence the business
could easily enjoy profit from the
applications of business intelligence
(Wu, Chen & Olson, 2014).
5. Successful Tracking of Key
Performance Indicators
The KPIs or the key performance
indicators are well tracked with the
help of business intelligence
applications and thus the employees
get a better idea of their work profile.
Table 1: Summary Table of Business Intelligence Benefits
2. Explanation of Business Intelligence Application in Health Industry
Business intelligence has proved to be quite effective and efficient for each and every
industry and has provided some of the most significant and important advantages to the users.
Amongst all of these industries, one of the major industry is the health care industry (Kimball
et al., 2015). This health care industry is the proper aggregation as well as integration of the
sectors in an economic system. It is responsible for providing services and goods so that the
patients could be treated with palliative, rehabilitative, preventive and curative care. There
are some of the major and the most significant applications of business intelligence that have
proven to be extremely effective for the health care industry. The users present visualization

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and then allow the health care company to come up with the upgraded as well as proper
informed strategies. Since, there is the latest trend of inventions and technologies, numerous
applications of business intelligence are available for the varied analysis (Laursen &
Thorlund, 2016). The most effective and important applications suitable for the health care
industry are as follows:
i) Performance Metrics: The first and the foremost application of BI for the health
care industry is performance metrics. The patient health could be eventually measured and
noted with the help of this particular application of business intelligence. For health care
organizations, it is extremely vital to measure and take a regular follow up of the heath
information of the patients (Vukšić, Bach & Popovič, 2013). Benchmarking as well as
performance metrics is responsible for providing this type of advantage to the health care
industry. Moreover, the business leaders could easily progress towards their business goals.
ii) Knowledge Management System: Another important and effective application of
the business intelligence for the betterment of health care industry is knowledge management
system. This particular system is majorly concerned with proper creation, utilization,
distribution or management of the knowledge. This knowledge is present within the doctors
and nurses, so that they could treat the patients better. The regulatory compliance is also
checked with this knowledge management system (Howson, 2013). The entire process of
treatment would be extremely easier for the physicians or hospitals since they would be able
to segregate the doctors or nurses as per their specialization.
iii) Decision Support System: The third important and noteworthy application of the
business intelligence is business support system or DSS. This particular system is responsible
for supporting the several organizational or business related decision making activities. These
systems then serve the respective planning, operations and management levels for the
organization (Debortoli, Müller & vom Brocke, 2014). Within a health care organization, it is
extremely important to undertake the correct and relevant decisions so that there is lesser
complexities of patient care. The structured and the unstructured decision related issues are
well resolved with this application of business application.
iv) Expert System: This is yet another important or vital application of the business
intelligence, which could be efficient for the health care industry. Expert system enables the
organizations in staying competitive within the world and hence requiring a faster processing
of increased and diversified higher volume information. The intelligent technologies as well

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as applications of business intelligence could eventually provide the most accurate,
immediate and automatic understanding of text messages or data. The data of the patients
hence could be easily encoded by the health care professionals and physicians of the
respective health care industry.
v) Data Mining Systems: The next popular application of this BI or business
intelligence within the health care industry is data mining system. It is the significant
procedure to discover several patterns within the larger data sets after the proper involvement
of methods in the subsequent intersection of database system, machine learning and statistics
(Kasemsap, 2015). Hence, the system of data mining could easily extract the patient’s
information from any particular data set with the intelligent methods for the purpose of
transforming the data to relevant information within a comprehensible structure.
vi) Reporting System: This is the sixth suitable application of business intelligence
that is efficient for the health care industry. This particular system could easily integrate as
well as process the data by proper sorting, grouping, formatting and summing up. Since, these
health care organizations have to deal with patients’ data, it is extremely vital for them to
integrate and process the data to avoid any type of complexity in the system.
Following is the summary table of each and every above mentioned application of
business intelligence in health care industry:
Applications of
Business
Intelligence
Characteristics of the
Applications
Competitive Advantages by
the Applications
Performance Metrics Checks the performance of the
patients and provide
notifications
Gets accurate data
Knowledge
Management System
Shares knowledge about best
practices and products amongst
the customers and employees.
Helps in improving the
decisions by properly
publishing the physician’s
knowledge (Sallam et al., 2014).
Decision Support
System
Enables decision makers in
collaborating irrespective of
time and location.
Helps to improve decision in a
shorter period.
Expert System Encodes human knowledge for Expert knowledge is encoded,

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making easier diagnosis. saved and processed.
Data Mining
Systems
Uses statistical technique for
finding patterns.
Patterns are discovered easily
for predicting future outcomes.
Reporting System Integration and processing of
data.
Improves decisions by
providing accurate information.
Table 2: Summary Table of BI Applications
Research and Contribution
This research contribution has found out that business intelligence is extremely
efficient for any industry. These technologies eventually aim in allowing for an easier
interpretation of the big data. The proper identification of the newer opportunities as well as
implementation of the effective strategy on the basis of insights could provide the businesses
with subsequent competitive market advantages as well as long term stability. The business
intelligence could be utilized by the enterprises for supporting a wider range of business
related decisions ranging from the operational to the strategic. BI or business intelligence
consists of the strategies as well as technologies that are being utilized by the enterprises for
proper data analysis of the significant business information. The technologies eventually
provide the historical, predictive and current views of several business operations. For the
health care industry, the major applications are expert system, data mining system, reporting
system, performance metrics, decision support system and knowledge management system.
This research report has added significant value to the area of business intelligence. Proper
understanding of BI applications is provided here. After completing the research, it is being
found that BI applications could be quite effective for health care industry. This particular
industry subsequently entails the respective software solutions for analysing the data, which
are fed by the users as input. Moreover, due to the presence of BI applications like KMS and
DSS, the health industry would be extremely beneficial.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the technologies of
business intelligence could easily handle the large amounts of unstructured and structured
data for helping in the identification, development and even creating the new strategic
business opportunities. The basic operating decision eventually includes the product
positioning as well as pricing and the strategic business decision includes goals, directions
and priorities at a wider level. This business intelligence eventually encompasses the broad

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variety of applications, methodologies and tools, which enable the organizations or
companies to collect the confidential data from several external sources and internal systems.
It is extremely effective and efficient for the proper combination of data derived from the
market, where the company could operate easily. The above research report has clearly the
proper application of BI technologies in the health industry.

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