“Increasingly high volumes of data are required for all decisions and big data will not only alter the regulatory process as we know it, but payers will increasingly require this evidence as a pre-requisite for reimbursement,” said Dr Bonnie Bain, Global Head of Pharma at GlobalData. The company said that, compared with other industries, healthcare adoption of big data has been slow but its use will increase dramatically in 2019 across a number of core functions, such as: drug discovery and design; clinical trials; electronic health records; healthcare intelligence; and hospitals and healthcare systems.

AI was found to be the second biggest trend anticipated in 2019 as confirmed by 32 per cent of survey respondents. ‘‘Companies need to understand the specific benefits that technologies such as AI can offer and how it can help their organization. Investing in AI and Big Data will not provide a cure for business problems so do not believe the hype and set realistic expectations for success,” Dr Bain. “There are also a lot of AI solutions on the market and not all of them are right for every business objective. Choosing the right solution for your business need is key! Also partner for success.’”