Healthcare was once about trying to heal the sick patient. But organisations around the world, including the NHS, now have an opportunity to shift this focus to one of keeping the public healthy and anticipating health issues before they become a problem.

The ability to create and capture data is exploding and offers huge potential for the NHS to save both lives and scarce resources.

Healthcare and life sciences are the fastest growing and biggest impact industries today when it comes to big data. In the UK, huge anonymised datasets are being developed for areas such as pharmaceutical research, with the aim of vastly improving the efficacy of drugs. Disease research is also being supported by big data to help tackle conditions such as diabetes and cancer.

But the UK has an opportunity to go much further in unleashing the real power of big data – the potential to personalise healthcare for every NHS patient. Identifying people at risk of becoming ill or developing a serious condition and providing the foresight to prescribe preventive measures is a very real possibility.

In the US, big data has been used to predict accurately which patients are likely to be readmitted to hospital within 30 days, with data analysis also suggesting the remedial actions needed for each patient. In Mississippi, we have been able to help predict accurately the cost of managing asthmatic children across an entire state.

Predictive intelligence has huge potential for the NHS. Imagine if a doctor could tell a patient that they could add six years to their life expectancy if they altered a behaviour or changed a medication in order to reduce their high risk of developing a particular condition – a risk identified through big data.

Although currently shielded by privacy rules, the personal data that can risk score every NHS patient already exists. And it is already far more centralised and normalised than in countries such as the US, giving the UK the opportunity to become the world leader.

The public are already generating and sharing huge amounts of personal health data through consumer devices such as smart watches and wristbands that monitor sleeping patterns, exercise, heart rate, calorie consumption and more. However, in many instances the likes of Google has this data but the NHS doesn't.

Supermarkets already know what food and drink individuals are buying. And even the kitchen fridge can be connected to the internet, in effect monitoring what you consume. It is unstoppable that the internet of things will ultimately feed the true big data engine.

Crucially, the richer the dataset available, the more accurate predictive healthcare can be. In the future, when the NHS can assimilate and associate big data with individuals, we will start to see healthcare personalised to each patient. On a population scale, we will be able to remove surprises and anticipate pandemics, outbreaks of diseases, and unexpected demand for A&E services.

Essentially, we will see hugely improved financial, operational and clinical outcomes and better performance in a healthcare environment where medical professionals do not need to rely on gut feelings. This will allow the NHS to save more lives and make its money go much further.

Wayne Parslow is general manager EMEA at MedeAnalytics.

This article is published by Guardian Professional. Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to receive regular emails and exclusive offers.