About Belfast International Homecoming 2023

Belfast Homecoming celebrates a city which has seen — and survived — its fair share of challenges and emerged resolute, resilient and ready to rock.

At Homecoming 2023 they will showcase ebullient, emerging communities transforming the Belfast demographic, culinary and community landscape.

Global visitors will hear from civic leaders about their ambitious vision for the future and meet the peace-makers, bridge-builders and change-makers building a better Belfast.

A special focus will be on the business leaders and entrepreneurs driving forward the new city; all of them inspirational individuals keen to partner with you to source investment, advice and contracts.

Belfast International Homecoming will take place at Titanic Hotel, Belfast / The Belfast Harbour Commissioners on 28 September 2023.

Denis Murphy, CEO Anaeko, delighted to be Honorary Chair

I am delighted to be appointed as one of the Honorary Chairs for the Belfast International Homecoming and would like to extend a heartfelt and warm welcome to the Northern Ireland diaspora and supporters of Northern Ireland as they gather in Belfast for the much-anticipated Belfast International Homecoming. Belfast’s rich history and dynamic present are enhanced by your presence, as you contribute to the diverse and inclusive spirit that defines our community.

Over the last few decades Belfast has overcome numerous challenges to emerge as an outstanding example of positive transformation and progress. In recent years, Belfast has experienced a remarkable transformation, driven in part by a wave of inward migration. This influx of new talent and fresh perspectives has infused the city with vitality and innovation, propelling it into a new era of growth and renewal.

At the heart of Belfast’s resurgence are its visionary business leaders and entrepreneurs. These individuals have embraced innovation, harnessed the city’s potential, and are driving it forward on the global stage. Belfast has rapidly emerged as a thriving tech hub with a strong emphasis on both cybersecurity and software development. This city has successfully harnessed its strategic location, skilled workforce, and robust infrastructure to become a magnet for technological innovation. With a particular focus on cyber defence and software advancement, Belfast has cultivated a diverse ecosystem that encompasses start-ups, established tech companies, research institutions, and educational centres, all working in tandem to drive the evolution of digital security and software solutions. This collaborative environment, bolstered by proactive government support and foreign direct investment, has led to the growth of a vibrant community of experts and professionals in cybersecurity and software engineering.

About Anaeko

On the back of this wave, Anaeko has established an impressive track record of delivering innovation for North American cloud software pioneers, including industry giants like IBM and TidalScale. With a commitment to cutting-edge innovation and unwavering dedication to quality, Anaeko has consistently delivered solutions that have pushed the boundaries of cloud technology. Collaborating with these leading innovators, Anaeko has contributed to the creation of advanced software solutions that optimise cloud infrastructure, enhance scalability, and elevate overall performance. Through a combination of technical expertise, collaborative spirit, and a deep understanding of the intricacies of cloud computing, Anaeko has solidified its reputation as a trusted partner in driving forward the evolution of cloud software for some of the most influential companies in North America and beyond.

Join the Celebrations

The Belfast Homecoming 2023 promises to be an excellent event that brings together leaders, thinkers, and change-makers from around the globe to help accelerate this growth and renewal. Civic leaders will share their ambitious visions for the future, offering insights into the city’s ongoing transformation. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet the peace-makers and bridge-builders and innovators who have worked tirelessly to build a stronger, more inclusive Belfast—a testament to the power of collaboration.

Please join in the celebration: Register Here

The Anaeko team attended the Belfast stop on the AWS roadshow 2022 at Titanic Belfast this week. As an AWS partner we both attended and exhibited at the event held in the Olympic suite of the iconic building, and got a chance to hear from and connect with the expanding AWS community across Northern Ireland.

The half-day event in Belfast was presented to focus on how the cloud can help you save costs, improve agility and accelerate innovation. We got to hear first-hand as AWS partners and customers shared their cloud journeys. With the level of expertise in the room it was incredibly easy to draw inspiration from their experiences on how they have leveraged the cloud to innovate and digitally transform their businesses.

As the afternoon progressed and after a rather full itinerary that morning, it was great to have such an opportunity to network and have open discussion with a variety of business and entrepreneurs who also leverage the AWS discipline in their products and services.

One area that Anaeko utilises AWS cloud is within Data Platform Design and Delivery. Our data platform service provides architectural design and delivery of a modern, secure, scalable, resilient data hub on cloud, supporting secure data sharing for reporting and analytics, including business intelligence (BI) reporting and evidence-based decision making. This also includes the setup of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and cloud data.

Our modular designs cater for data ingestion, transactions, convergence, enrichment and quality improvement. Our experts leverage cloud managed services, open-source frameworks and components, and commercial products to implement best-fit Data Lake, Warehouse and Lake-House for data hubs.

Data Platform Design and Delivery

Architectural design and delivery of a secure, scalable, resilient data-hub on cloud, supporting data ingestion, transactions, convergence, and secure sharing of data for reporting and analytics. Our experts leverage cloud managed services, open-source frameworks and components, and commercial products to implement best-fit Data Lake, Warehouse and Lake-House for data hubs.

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Working within the technology industry there are some buzzwords which come up over and over again, current one being ‘Artificial Intelligence’. 

Algorithms

Prediction machines use algorithms to predict the likelihood of X. For example, predicting the salary of an individual given information on their demographics, behaviour and cultural trends. By calculating the prediction accuracy of an event happening to a certain person, industry or trend, we gain further insight and can act accordingly. Prediction machines or models have many advantages. Although there is investment required to build these models, there are savings made intervening in a problem before it escalates. Public sector organisations can do this, but only if they can convene and analyse the datasets that might collectively point to cases of highest future risk.

If we take the example of three isolated departments; department for Education, the Police and the Department of Health & Social Care. If each department can collaborate and integrate their data, we would be able to predict various cases like individuals who are at risk of committing crime in the future, individuals who are vulnerable and individuals who are at risk of drug/alcohol abuse etc. By identifying the potential problem before it happens this has a domino effect in future years. The costs of intervening before an event, far outweighs the costs of intervening after the problem. 

Predictive Policing

In January 2018, it was announced that Kanagawa, a Japanese prefecture, hoped to introduce predictive policing, when tackling crime before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. This AI-based system would employ a ‘deep learning’ algorithm that allows the computer to teach itself by analysing big data. By gathering various data from different departments, they can use metrics on time, places, weather and geographical conditions to predict the likelihood of criminal offences taking place. 

Technology Trends

The collection of data is crucial to all things predictive. Most departments are sitting on a pool of data that can facilitate prediction machines and automated processes. From Forbes top 5 technology trends in 2019, three of the five trends will require the utilisation of data to deliver the output.

Predictive Analytics in Healthcare

The healthcare industry produces and gathers a huge amount of data and this data has the potential to be used in predictive analytics modelling to help improve and forecast the demand on healthcare services. There are many ways in which predictive analytics could be used. Some companies are looking at forecasting hospital readmissions and others looking at predicting specific patient illnesses before they become serious. 

Predictive analytics in medical imaging is set to have a big impact on cancer care too, says Anant Madabhushi. For pathologists, it will mean using predictive analytics to improve identification of specific things on images.

(Source: HealthTech )

“Usually, we see AI algorithms that can detect a brain haemorrhage or a wrist fracture — a very narrow scope for single-use cases,” said Matthew Lungren, MD, MPH, assistant professor of radiology. “But here we’re talking about 14 different pathologies analyzed simultaneously, and it’s all through one algorithm.” (Source: Stanford Medicine) 

Data Analytics and Insights

A full data quality assessment, building a complete picture of your data landscape. Providing rapid proof of value, highlighting gaps and making recommendations on how to answer your most pressing questions. Our Data Analysts will perform statistical, geospatial and trend analysis to rapidly generate your reports and provide valuable insights.

Download brochure

Artificial Intelligence

Working within the technology industry there are some buzzwords which come up over and over again, the current one being ‘Artificial Intelligence’.

A recent book on Prediction Machines: The simple economics of Artificial Intelligence gives a better understanding of what artificial intelligence means for the future;

“The current wave of advances in artificial intelligence doesn’t actually bring us intelligence but instead a critical component of intelligence:- prediction.”

Prediction machines use algorithms to predict the likelihood of X. For example, predicting the salary of an individual given information on their demographics, behaviour and cultural trends. By calculating the prediction accuracy of an event happening to a certain person, industry or trend, we gain further insight and can act accordingly. Prediction machines or models have many advantages, although there is an investment required to build these models, there are savings made intervening in a problem before it escalates. Public sector organisations can do this, but only if they can convene and analyse the datasets that might collectively point to cases of highest future risk.

If we take the example of three isolated departments; Department for Education, the Police and the Department of Health & Social Care. If each department can collaborate and integrate their data, we would be able to predict various cases like individuals who are at risk of committing crime in the future, individuals who are vulnerable and individuals who are at risk of drug/alcohol abuse etc. By identifying the potential problem before it happens this has a domino effect in future years. The costs of intervening before an event far outweigh the costs of intervening after the problem. In January 2018, it was announced that Kanagawa, a Japanese prefecture, hoped to introduce predictive policing, when tackling crime before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. This AI-based system would employ a ‘deep learning’ algorithm that allows the computer to teach itself by analysing big data. By gathering various data from different departments, they can use metrics on time, places, weather and geographical conditions to predict the likelihood of criminal offences taking place.

Predictive Analytics for Better Health and Social Care

There are different areas where public services can implement predictive analytics. Within health and social care departments collaboration, data analysis, aligned information architecture and machine learning could lead to improved services and highlight patient’s health signals before they develop into serious conditions.

Machine learning and predictive analytics has been used in collaboration between AliveCor and Mayo Clinic with ECG machine learning to unlock information on key factors beyond heart health.

“Mayo Clinic has pioneered new approaches that may uncover significant measures of physiology that have been hidden in individuals’ ECGs.” said Vic Gundotra, CEO, AliveCor.

“It is exciting to see the application of machine learning algorithms in ECG and its potential to quickly detect rhythm abnormalities in patients,” said Friedman, a Mayo Clinic cardiologist.

More industries are becoming aware of data optimisation, prediction and the benefits of aligning multiple data sources, so costs are dropping for these services with some areas already adopting these techniques including fraud detection, credit worthiness, health insurance and inventory management. Successful implementation of predictive analytics is transforming human activities and starting to move into the healthcare sector in order to remove siloed working and improve health information sharing.

A good example of this is from a NHS Digital case study were Luton Council aimed to improve the communication between Healthcare and Adult Social Care.

A care system “Framework for Frailty” was developed to collaborate and create a common approach to the early recognition and identification of frailty as a long-term condition. The system made data available between health response staff and social care staff so staff could provide better targeted prevention and early intervention for patients that would be likely to need health and social care.

The outcomes of this project are to “provide personalised prevention care, see a potential £2.7 million saving for hospitals and reduce hospital admissions”.

Predictive analytics, artificial intelligence and data optimisation are achievable within healthcare and starting to play an integral role. With collaboration, engagement from key stakeholders, a focus on data protection, legislation and information architecture predictive analytics can bring many advantages to health care delivery and patients health.

The collection of data is crucial to all things predictive. Most departments are sitting on a pool of data that can facilitate prediction machines and automated processes.

If you would like to find out more about how your data could be used for predictive analytics download our latest brochure on Data Analytics and Insights.

Data Analytics and Insights

A full data quality assessment, building a complete picture of your data landscape. Providing rapid proof of value, highlighting gaps and making recommendations on how to answer your most pressing questions. Our Data Analysts will perform statistical, geospatial and trend analysis to rapidly generate your reports and provide valuable insights.

Download brochure

Technology within healthcare has the potential to transform patient care and the health sector in many ways. The analysis of medical data can help gain insights and support decision-making by collecting data from a variety of areas such as medical costs, clinical data, patient behaviour and pharmaceuticals. Because healthcare data is so complex and can be difficult to process there are many barriers in place, but we want to explore the benefits of healthcare analytics and have a look at some examples of how data and machine learning are being used cross the healthcare industry. 

Personalised patient care

Integrated care is a patient-centred model that aims to bring communication and co-ordination between patients, healthcare professional, and collaboration of care delivery even between separate organisations. With connected health, correct data processing and analytics guide medical professionals along a clinical pathway which could follow and support patients with personalised care. Further AI analysis of patient data, can further enhance the patients journey and efficiency of treatment.   

“Patients whose doctors provided more patient-centric care by discussing their concerns, analysing their conditions in light of their broader health record and collaborating to find solutions, had 51.3 percent lower annual healthcare costs than those without.” (Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine) 

Data analytics help health providers identify patterns and red flags that are not easily caught by manual processes. Some healthcare organisations are using big data to monitor hospital admissions in real-time, creating informative dashboards for medical professionals and pairing patients with the appropriate specialists (from Modern Healthcare). 

Operational Efficiency 

Across all industries operational efficiency through lean practices and data analytics have been adopted to become more streamline and cost-effective. For healthcare service providers predictive analytics and real-time data can help to understand admission and discharge rates to analyse staff efficiency for different numbers of patients at one time. Data analysis could influence healthcare to decrease waiting times, streamline emergency departments, or improve accuracy in administration departments. 

A good example of data analysis and turning big data into dynamic reports, KPI reporting and dashboards, improving patient outcomes and reducing costs is the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Demah Al Shathri, Manager, Enterprise Reporting, comments:

“As we approach the pre-defined threshold for a particular measure—for example, waiting time in the ER department—the system automatically issues an alert, and the relevant decision-maker can drill down through the numbers to see where the problem lies. If we actually hit or exceed the threshold, there are separate escalated alerts for those events.” 

By using information rich dashboards and reports the hospital decision makers can quickly decide on the best approach in any scenario. 

Discovering the right medicine to cure diseases 

By analysing large sets of data through machine learning and AI, drug discovering can become more accurate to treat individual patients. Data analysis can provide a view of correlations and hidden patterns within huge data sets like clinical trials and medical records. Predictive analytics could be used to test the effectiveness of a specific drug at treating a disease or illness.  

An interesting example from Qrativ looks at combining “AI and Big Data to discover new purposes for drug treatments”.

“The AI platform triangulates easily between the scientific literature concerning existing drugs and other large sources information, like genome sequencing, in order to predict the efficiency of a drug in a data driven manner.” 

Maintenance of Equipment 

Healthcare service providers operate with a huge physical infrastructure and all machines must work effectively all the time. The Internet of Things could influence the healthcare sector offering a range of equipment to transmit data to central dashboards and reports to monitor status, performance, usage and faults with equipment.   

A report from Harbor Research looks at “Machine Data Analytics Drives Innovation in Healthcare Market” and how todays’ tools are only scratching the surface of the value of complex machine data.  

With these benefits, and many more, opportunities to improve patient care and reduce costs within the healthcare industry are growing but with some barriers like siloed working, problematic data conventions, sensitive data and patient preferences data analytics has yet to be fully utilised and relies on collaboration and information architecture for the entire industry to benefit. 

Anaeko CTO, Colm Hayden is in Boston, Massachusetts this week attending this years Medtech conference by AdvaMed. Having worked on a number of projects in the health sector, this event provides a great opportunity to meet a number of innovators and market leaders in medical technology. To find out more about the confirmation, follow the link.

Data Analytics and Insights

A full data quality assessment, building a complete picture of your data landscape. Providing rapid proof of value, highlighting gaps and making recommendations on how to answer your most pressing questions. Our Data Analysts will perform statistical, geospatial and trend analysis to rapidly generate your reports and provide valuable insights.

Download brochure