Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Big data in healthcare: a discussion on the big challenges

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Health and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Our century has been described as the electronic age and every day new technologies or applications, that generate data with exponential rates, are emerged. As a consequence, all and more organizations are facing the problem of managing large amounts of data. Generally, the large amount of data and their handling, storage and analysis is referred as Big Data. The emerging field of Big Data poses many challenges for healthcare organizations, as healthcare data and information increases. The paper describes the emerging era of Big Data in the field of health care and focuses on their benefits, challenges and ethics providing a broad overview for healthcare researchers, practitioners and health policy makers. Furthermore, we proposed a three-dimensional model for assessing Big Data concerns in the medical context. The paper is not intended to be a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art of Big Data technology, but rather to raise the awareness of the considerations that healthcare professionals may face or will face in the near future.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Patel AB, Birla M, Nair U. Addressing big data problem using Hadoop and Map Reduce. 3rd Nirma University International Conference on Engineering, NUiCONE 2012. 2012.

  2. McFarland M. Ethical implications of data aggregation. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University. 2012.

  3. Mateosian R. Ethics of big data. IEEE Micro. 2013;33(2):60–1. doi:10.1109/mm.2013.35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Richards NM, King JH. Big data ethics. Wake Forest Law Review. In: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2384174. 2014.

  5. Sun ZH, Wang HS, Zhu C, Wang Q, Yan Y, editors. Integrated information supporting systems in big data applications. Proceedings - 8th International Conference on Internet Computing for Science and Engineering, ICICSE 2015. 2016.

  6. Manyika J, Chui M, Brown B, Bughin J, Dobbs R, Roxburgh C, et al. Big data: the next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity. McKinsey Global Institute. 2011.

  7. Boyd D, Crawford K. Critical questions for big data: provocations for a cultural, technological, and scholarly phenomenon. Information Communication and Society. 2012;15(5):662–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Marx V. The big challenges of big data. Nature. 2013;498(7453):255–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Parker PA. Discussion of “reliability meets big data: opportunities and challenges”. Qual Eng. 2014;26(1):117–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Costa FF. Big data in biomedicine. Drug Discov Today. 2014;19(4):433–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. FUJITSU. White paper solution approaches for big data. In: www.fujitsu.com/fts. 2014.

  12. Egan BM. Prediction of incident hypertension. Health implications of data mining in the ‘big data’ era. J Hypertens. 2013;31(11):2123–4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Dumbill E. What is big data?: An introduction to the big data landscape. In: O’REILLY. 2012. http://www.strata.oreilly.com/2012/01/what-isbig-data.html. Accessed 20 June 2015. 2015.

  14. Manovich L. Trending: the promises and the challenges of big social data. In: Gold MK, editor. Debates in the digital humanities. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press; 2012. p. 504.

  15. Raghupathi W, Raghupathi V. Big data analytics in healthcare: promise and potential. Health Information Science and Systems. 2014;2(3):1–10.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Transformation IfHT. Transforming health care through big data strategies for leveraging big data in the health care industry. New York: Institute for Health Technology Transformation ; 2013. http://www.ihealthtrancom/wordpress/2013/03/iht%C2%B2-releases-big-data-research-reportdownload-today/

    Google Scholar 

  17. GARTNER. IT glossary: big data. In: GARTNER. 2013. http://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/big-data/. Accessed 15 June 2015. 2015.

  18. Jacobs A. The pathologies of big data. Queue. 2009;7(6):1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Mayer-Schönberger VCK. Big data: a revolution that will transform how we live, work, and think. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Wang Y, Kung LA, Byrd TA. Big data analytics: understanding its capabilities and potential benefits for healthcare organizations. Technol Forecast Soc Chang. 2015; doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2015.12.019.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Batarseh FA, Latif EA. Assessing the quality of service using big data analytics. With application to healthcare. Big Data Research. 2015; doi:10.1016/j.bdr.2015.10.001.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Fuller JC, Khoueiry P, Dinkel H, Forslund K, Stamatakis A, Barry J, et al. Biggest challenges in bioinformatics. EMBO Rep. 2013;14(4):302–4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Shaer O, Mazalek A, Ullmer B, Konkel M, editors. From big data to insights: opportunities and challenges for TEI in genomics. TEI 2013 - Proceedings of the 7th international conference on tangible, embedded and embodied interaction. 2013.

  24. Kord D, Doug P. Ethics of big data: balancing risk and innovation. Sebastopol: O’Reilly Media; 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Gostin LO. Privacy: rethinking health information technology and informed consent. The Hastings Center report. 2009; Suppl:15–7.

  26. Trifonova OP, Il’in VA, Kolker EV, Lisitsa AV. Big data in biology and medicine. Acta Nat. 2013;5(18):13–6.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Groves P, Kayyali B, Knott D, Van Kuiken S. The ‘big data’ revolution in healthcare, Accelerating value and innovation. In: McKinsey & Company. Center for US Health System Reform, Business Technology Office. 2013. http://www.mckinsey.com/.

  28. Srinivasan U, Arunasalam B. Leveraging big data analytics to reduce healthcare costs. IT Professional. 2013;15(6):21–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Archenaa J, Mary Anita EA, editors. A survey of big data analytics in healthcare and government. Procedia Computer Science. 2015.

  30. Versel N. How hospitals are dealing with big data. US news, Health. 2013. http://www.healthusnewscom/health-news/hospital-of-tomorrow/articles/2013/10/15/how-hospitals-are-dealing-with-big-data.

  31. Roski J, Bo-Linn GW, Andrews TA. Creating value in health care through big data: opportunities and policy implications. Health Aff. 2014;33(7):1115–22. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2014.0147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Viceconti M, Hunter P, Hose R. Big data, big knowledge: big data for personalized healthcare. IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics. 2015;19(4):1209–15. doi:10.1109/jbhi.2015.2406883.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Heitmueller A, Henderson S, Warburton W, Elmagarmid A, Pentland A, Darzi A. Developing public policy to advance the use of big data in health care. Health Aff. 2014;33(9):1523–30. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2014.0771.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Ioannidis JPA. Informed consent, big data, and the oxymoron of research that is not research. Am J Bioeth. 2013;13(4):40–2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Hoffman S, Podgurski A. Big bad data: law, public health, and biomedical databases. Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics. 2013;41(Suppl. 1):56–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Yang X, Miao Y. Distributed agent based interoperable virtual EMR system for healthcare system integration. J Med Syst. 2011;35(3):309–19. doi:10.1007/s10916-009-9367-5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Yang TH, Sun YS, Lai F. A scalable healthcare information system based on a service-oriented architecture. J Med Syst. 2011;35(3):391–407. doi:10.1007/s10916-009-9375-5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Hamilton B. Impacts of big data. Potential is huge, so are challenges. Health management technology. 2013;34(8):12–3.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Leber J. In: The hospital of the future, big data is one of your doctors. Co Exist. 2013. http://www.fastcoexistcom/3022050/futurist-forum/in-the-hospital-of-the-future-big-data-is-one-of-your-doctors.

  40. Pustovit SV, Williams ED. Philosophical aspects of dual use technologies. Sci Eng Ethics. 2010;16(1):17–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Rossies C. Does big data mean big ethics? Oversight. 2014. http://www.oversightsystemscom/resources/blog_post/2014/07/does-big-data-mean-big-ethics.

  42. Dabrock P, Braun M, Ried J, Sonnewald U. A primer to ‘bio-objects’: new challenges at the interface of science, technology and society. Syst Synth Biol. 2013;7(1–2):1–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Stylianou A, Talias M. The ‘Magic Light’: a discussion on laser ethics. science and engineering. Ethics. 2014;21(4):979-998. doi: 10.1007/s11948-014-9566-4.

  44. Frize M, editor. A debate on the ethics of body enhancement technologies and regeneration. IFMBE Proceedings; 2013. 2013.

  45. Botsis T, Hartvigsen G, Chen F, Weng C. Secondary use of EHR: data quality issues and informatics opportunities. AMIA Jt Summits Transl Sci Proc. 2010;1:1–5.

    Google Scholar 

  46. Keen J. Digital health care: cementing centralisation? Health Informatics Journal. 2014;20(3):168–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Haase R, Michie M, Skinner D. Flexible positions, managed hopes: the promissory bioeconomy of a whole genome sequencing cancer study. Soc Sci Med. 2015;130:146–53. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.02.016.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Müller O, Junglas I, Brocke JV, Debortoli S. Utilizing big data analytics for information systems research: challenges, promises and guidelines. Eur J Inf Syst. 2016;25(4):289–302. doi:10.1057/ejis.2016.2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Boyle J. Biology must develop its own big-data systems. Nature. 2013;499(7456):7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Martínez-Pérez B, de la Torre-Díez I, López-Coronado M. Privacy and security in mobile health apps: a review and recommendations. J Med Syst. 2014;39(1):181. doi:10.1007/s10916-014-0181-3.

  51. Lee LM, Gostin LO. Ethical collection, storage, and use of public health data: a proposal for a national privacy protection. JAMA - Journal of the American Medical Association. 2009;302(1):82–4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Levy JA, Strombeck R. Health benefits and risks of the internet. J Med Syst. 2002;26(6):495–510. doi:10.1023/a:1020288508362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. Vayena E, Mastroianni A, Kahn J. Caught in the web: informed consent for online health research. Sci Transl Med. 2013;5(173):173fs6. doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.3004798.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  54. Cornelissen E, Mitton C, Davidson A, Reid C, Hole R, Visockas AM, et al. Determining and broadening the definition of impact from implementing a rational priority setting approach in a healthcare organization. Soc Sci Med. 2014;114:1–9. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.05.027.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  55. Charles DS. How hospitals can make big data pay big. Opportunities abound for hospitals and health systems. In: Healthcare IT News. 2014. http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/how-hospitals-can-make-big-data-pay-big. Accessed 30 May 2015. 2015.

  56. Ojha M, Mathur K, editors. Proposed application of big data analytics in healthcare at Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital. 2016 3rd MEC International Conference on Big Data and Smart City, ICBDSC 2016. 2016.

  57. sas TptK. Hadoop, What is it and why does it matter? 2016.

  58. Kaplan B. Selling health data: de-identification, privacy, and speech. Camb Q Healthc Ethics. 2015;24(3):256–71. doi:10.1017/s0963180114000589.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Healthcare Management Postgraduate Program, Open University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 12794, 2252, Latsia, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Andreas Stylianou & Michael A. Talias

Authors
  1. Andreas Stylianou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michael A. Talias
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andreas Stylianou.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Systems Medicine

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Stylianou, A., Talias, M.A. Big data in healthcare: a discussion on the big challenges. Health Technol. 7, 97–107 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12553-016-0152-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12553-016-0152-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation