Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Jun 25:8:2050312120934839.
doi: 10.1177/2050312120934839. eCollection 2020.

A review of big data and medical research

Mary Mallappallil  1 , Jacob Sabu  1 , Angelika Gruessner  1 , Moro Salifu  1
Affiliations
Review

A review of big data and medical research

Mary Mallappallil et al. SAGE Open Med. .

Abstract

Universally, the volume of data has increased, with the collection rate doubling every 40 months, since the 1980s. "Big data" is a term that was introduced in the 1990s to include data sets too large to be used with common software. Medicine is a major field predicted to increase the use of big data in 2025. Big data in medicine may be used by commercial, academic, government, and public sectors. It includes biologic, biometric, and electronic health data. Examples of biologic data include biobanks; biometric data may have individual wellness data from devices; electronic health data include the medical record; and other data demographics and images. Big data has also contributed to the changes in the research methodology. Changes in the clinical research paradigm has been fueled by large-scale biological data harvesting (biobanks), which is developed, analyzed, and managed by cheaper computing technology (big data), supported by greater flexibility in study design (real-world data) and the relationships between industry, government regulators, and academics. Cultural changes along with easy access to information via the Internet facilitate ease of participation by more people. Current needs demand quick answers which may be supplied by big data, biobanks, and changes in flexibility in study design. Big data can reveal health patterns, and promises to provide solutions that have previously been out of society's grasp; however, the murkiness of international laws, questions of data ownership, public ignorance, and privacy and security concerns are slowing down the progress that could otherwise be achieved by the use of big data. The goal of this descriptive review is to create awareness of the ramifications for big data and to encourage readers that this trend is positive and will likely lead to better clinical solutions, but, caution must be exercised to reduce harm.

Keywords: Big data; COVID-19; epidemiology/public health; medical research; real-world evidence; research paradigm.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure.1.
Figure.1.
Big data in medicine.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Big data security.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. De Mauro A, Greco M, Grimaldi M. A formal definition of big data based on its essential features. Lib Rev 2016; 65(3): 122–135.
    1. Vogel C, Zwolinsky S, Griffiths C, et al. A Delphi study to build consensus on the definition and use of big data in obesity research. Int J Obes 2019; 43(12): 2573–2586. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hashem I, Yaqoob I, Anuar N, et al. The rise of “big data” on cloud computing: review and open research issues. Inform Syst 2015; 47: 98–115.
    1. Hilbert M, López P. The world’s technological capacity to store, communicate, and compute information. Science 2011; 332: 60–65. - PubMed
    1. https://blog.google/products/photos/google-photos-one-year-200-million/ (accessed April 26, 2019).

LinkOut - more resources