Effective use of big data and advanced analytics increasingly critical to compete in today's life sciences industry, new Ernst & Young LLP report finds

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Jun 16, 2014, 09:00 ET

NEW YORK, June 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- An increased access to a wide variety of big data and more powerful analytics, combined with the coming of age of cloud-computing and predictive analytics platforms, are enabling an increasing number of life sciences companies to effectively harness insights from big data across the entire value chain. Yet, many organizations still lack the core capabilities and resources needed to capture and apply learnings from today's big data in a meaningful way. With a patient centric, transformational tidal wave approaching the industry, the need and ability for organizations to leverage big data-driven analytics insights is set to increase exponentially. These and other findings were released today in Order from chaos, a report by Ernst & Young LLP's Advisory Life Sciences Practice.

"Enterprise transformation led by big data-driven analytics is no longer a 'pie-in-the-sky' ambition for life sciences companies, but rather an essential and achievable component for their sustained success," said Todd Skrinar, a principal in the Ernst & Young LLP Advisory Life Sciences practice. "Organizations that understand how to effectively leverage internal and external data relevant to their products, markets and customers will create a distinct advantage for themselves in today's patient centric and outcomes-focused health care system. Those that do not invest may put their ability to effectively compete in the future in peril."

Order from chaos details how a convergence of five "mega-trends" have created a collaborative environment that gives life sciences and health care organizations the opportunity to utilize big data and advanced analytics to instill true patient centricity in their operations and deliver measurable improvements in outcomes. These mega-trends include:

Disruptive consumer technology that enables real-time monitoring of users' health status, including blood pressure, pulse rates and glucose levels.
The advancement of personalized medicine approaches targeting specific patient genomic segments.
The proliferation of advanced analytics that provide individuals, at all levels of an organization, with the ability to integrate large volume sets of big data from a variety of sources in real-time.
Maturing capabilities of cloud computing, which are overcoming some of the continued concerns life sciences companies have as it relates to data security and privacy.
The need to reduce health care costs in health care systems globally, which includes increased demands by public and private payers that life sciences companies demonstrate the real world impact of their products on outcomes.

The report also provides key insights into how life sciences organizations can effectively prepare for and capitalize on the increasing impact of data and analytics on the health care ecosystem, including how to:

Manage data and analytics projects as a portfolio of assets, whereby the value derived from short-term projects is balanced with longer-term, more complex opportunities.
Assess the strategic capabilities and resource requirements needed to compete in data and analytics.
Implement new advanced analytics capabilities in a way that increases the likelihood of their success.

"There are vast opportunities for life sciences organizations to utilize big data-driven analytics in new ways to help enable patient centricity, drive innovation, streamline operations and collaborate to demonstrate tangible and measurable value," remarked Ric Cavieres, a principal in the Ernst & Young LLP Advisory Life Sciences practice. "Those organizations with the vision and boldness to engage in these new forms of fact-based, data-centric collaborations with emerging mHealth, payers and other organizations will find new and highly profitable growth opportunities."

The full report is available for download here.

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Contact:

Michelle Sing
Ernst & Young LLP
201-872-1362
[email protected]

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