Big data is trending. People talk a lot about the advantages and opportunities of using big data analyses. In the healthcare sector, data is also becoming much more important. What does that mean for us, the patients?
All huge tech-companies, such as Google and Apple with their health apps, are nowadays focusing on the healthcare sector. However, there are bigger projects which the consumer does not know anything about. For instance, Intel recently began co-operating with the Michael J. Fox Foundation to use data obtained from wearables to fight Parkinson’s disease. Similarly, Google is conducting research to detect cancer using nanoparticles, and Philips is introducing, in collaboration with the Radboudumc, a smart plaster which can monitor the personal information (e.g. breathing and heartbeat) continuously. The focus of huge tech-companies to use big data in the healthcare sector shows opportunities to improve healthcare.
Big data provides many opportunities for innovations which have an extreme impact on our lives. However, there is a dark side. Three main problems arise: too high expectations of big data, privacy aspects, and the risk of private monopolies on data and knowledge.
Through the big opportunities of big data, people automatically expect that big data will solve all problems concerning healthcare. However, big data analyses are not a substitute to existing research methods yet. For example, correlations in large datasets might arise, which may not be causal or relevant. To judge the value of these correlations is still tough.
Additionally, it remains unclear to whom the data belong. Should this be the patient himself , the hospital, or the company which analyses the data? Currently, the boundaries are blurred. Some of the data belong to the patient and other data belong to the healthcare. When healthcare really implement big data analyses in their strategy, they have to secure the dataset to avoid data leakages.
Lastly, relating to privacy aspects people do not know which companies provide personally data. With the introduction of consumer-eHealth, more and more data is being uploaded to the cloud. This information may contain sensitive information, for example about measurements of blood pressure, photos of suspicious spots on the skin, and information concerning physical exercise. These data are very interesting from a commercial perspective. However, the question that remains is: who may have access to this sensitive information? Because of the huge market share of companies such as Google, Apple, and Philips, there is a high likelihood that such companies have your personal data.
The extent to which these issues will be problematic in the future remains unkown, but one thing is for sure: big data will have a big impact on healthcare.
How do you think about big data in healthcare?
