More than 30 percent of the world’s data is generated by the health care industry, according to RBC Capital Markets, a global investment bank. Yet, for a long time, the vast majority of these valuable insights lay dormant, untapped by the very institutions that create them. Recently, though, a significant transformation has been underway.
Thanks to technological advancements—especially in artificial intelligence (AI)—hospitals worldwide are beginning to harness the power of data in new and innovative ways. Massive electronic health records (EHRs), which were once merely static repositories, are now dynamic tools helping health care organizations improve patient care quality and operational efficiency.
To better understand this shift, Newsweek spoke with leaders from top-performing hospitals featured in its Global Hospital Rating, presented in partnership with Statista. These hospitals are pioneers in using data, revealing how insights can drive better health care outcomes.
At Saudi German Hospital in Dubai, Dr. Ahmed Algamal, who serves as the group total quality manager for the United Arab Emirates, calls data the “lifeblood of improvement.” Originally a physician, Dr. Algamal transitioned to quality management almost 20 years ago, making performance measurement central to his work. Data at his hospital is in constant use—whether for clinical effectiveness, operational efficiency, or improving patient experiences.
Every morning, Dr. Algamal’s team reviews key performance indicators (KPIs) from the previous day. This daily monitoring helps spot progress and highlight areas ripe for improvement. For instance, the hospital tackled its patient discharge process, which had been frustrating patients and overburdening staff. Data analysis revealed that timely discharges were alarmingly low—between 20 to 30 percent. By collaborating closely with frontline workers, they streamlined workflows to boost this rate dramatically, ultimately achieving an impressive 80 to 90 percent on-time discharge rate.
This focus on data-driven improvement contributed to Saudi German Hospital earning a perfect five-star rating from Newsweek’s Global Hospital Rating. The assessment measures a hospital’s performance in provision and timeliness of care, patient experience and safety, IT and health care technology, and attractiveness as an employer. Dr. Algamal notes that without data pinpointing bottlenecks, it would be challenging to make processes leaner and more efficient.
But hospitals are also leveraging AI to streamline finances and administration. At Saudi German, AI tools now predict which insurance claims might be rejected before submission. By scrutinizing medical codes and documentation, staff can preemptively address issues, improving claim approval rates and reducing delays.
Still, Dr. Algamal emphasizes caution when integrating AI into clinical decision-making. In Saudi Arabia, AI supports interpreting radiology scans, lab results, and potential drug interactions, but concerns about bias persist. AI models are only as fair as the data they’re trained on, and disparities in patient demographics—such as gender, race, or socioeconomic status—can skew results if not properly accounted for.
This issue isn’t unique to the Middle East. A recent study from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City found that large language models (LLMs) often showed biased recommendations, with marginalized groups being disproportionately steered toward urgent care or mental health assessments. Conversely, high-income patients were more frequently recommended to receive advanced imaging tests compared to lower-income groups.
Dr. Algamal believes AI has potential to support clinical decisions further, for example in prescribing medications or predicting drug interactions. However, for AI to reach that potential, it must be trained on more comprehensive and representative datasets.
Thousands of miles away in Montreal, Canada, the Jewish General Hospital is also pioneering data-driven health care. Its Associate CEO and Chief Operating Officer, Erin Cook, highlights how blending rich datasets with AI capabilities aids clinical and operational decision-making. Serving a population of 380,000 in the West-Central Montreal network but seeing roughly 700,000 patients annually, Jewish General also achieved a flawless five-star rating in the Global Hospital Rating.
In 2019, the hospital launched a digital strategy centered on data and AI, which led to the 2021 introduction of its Command Center. This hub decentralizes decision-making by providing real-time visibility into patient flow across multiple sites. The impact was immediate: better access to care, shorter wait times, reduced backlogs for mental health services, and tighter coordination of home care.
A remarkable highlight came on an exceptionally busy day with 63 patients waiting for emergency department admission—double or triple the usual number. Thanks to the Command Center, staff mobilized resources to discharge 81 patients safely within 24 hours by coordinating departments and deploying additional nursing and rehabilitation support. This helped free up much-needed hospital beds during a record-breaking waitlist period.
The Command Center also empowers physicians to report and escalate barriers via a digital ticketing system, enabling leadership to address root causes swiftly. For example, delays in accessing peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) lines—a critical bottleneck—were cut from three days to just four hours when a dedicated vascular access team was introduced.
Another key innovation at Jewish General is the Excellence Center for Value-Based Care. Cook and her team developed a sophisticated patient-level costing system that tracks individuals throughout their care journeys. By integrating cost data with health outcomes, incidents, and patient satisfaction measures, they created a comprehensive business intelligence tool. This allows clinicians to view how their quality performance correlates with financial impact, fostering data-driven decisions that improve both clinical and economic results.
Despite the technology’s promise, both Dr. Algamal and Erin Cook agree the human element is crucial. Cook stresses that “change management”—supporting health care staff to confidently use new tools and trust the data—is the biggest challenge, not the infrastructure or technology itself. Transparency about data sources and accuracy helps clinicians embrace these innovations.
Dr. Algamal echoes this view, highlighting how daily KPI presentations keep staff accountable and empower real-time problem-solving. Simply put, “Data generates improvements.”
Together, these leaders see data-driven health care as ushering in what some call the “fifth industrial revolution.” Unlike previous industrial ages focused on machines replacing humans, this new era centers on technology augmenting human judgment. Hospitals once struggling with fragmented data now possess clearer insights into costs, outcomes, and patient needs—and how these factors connect.
Reflecting on the profound societal changes brought by past industrial revolutions, Cook emphasizes cautious optimism: this is a fantastic opportunity, but one that requires intelligent application and the active participation of clinicians to truly transform health care delivery.
