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Courtney Henry Dr. Frances English 212 Visual Approaches to Composition March 2, 2014 Is Big Data Beneficial? What is Big Data really? Data comes in all forms but Big Data is Computers. Data sets, typically consisting of billions or trillions of records that are so vast and complex that they require new and powerful computational resources to process (Big Data). Big Data can be used in many different situations such as: predicting crime, the stock market, healthcare, fashion styles and many more. In the healthcare system Big Data is turning into an important tool for helping both doctors and patients. Big Data allows the healthcare system to become more proactive and help to predict outbreaks. The healthcare system is trying to get patients more involved in their own health by making medical records electronic, but like anything this has its pros and cons too. According to The New England Journal of Medicine In an online survey conducted in November 2007, 91% of respondents agreed that patients should have access to their own electronic medical record, and 60% agreed that the benefits of electronic medical records outweigh the privacy risks (Steinbrook). In this article Steinbrook talks about many companies that would have online repositories. A few of them are Google Health, Dossia, and Health Vault. These repositories, which are places where the companies would store patient information, would have privacy policies that allow people to delete/cancel their accounts. The major downfall though would be that data privacy and security could be lacking in legal force (Steinbrook). As of right now it is hard to really judge how secure electronic records will be and that is one of the major cons of

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personally controlled health data that may discourage people from committing to electronic medical records . Since these three companies were announced in 2006, 2007, and 2008 it is still too early to measure their collective impact (Steinbrook). Stacey Schneider has worked with technology for over 18 years and now works for Pivotal to help companies build programs that have to do with big data. According to Schneider big data technology and services market is growing at a whopping 31.7% (Schneider). Schneider talks about predicting outbreaks of dengue (which infects over 100 million people a year) and malaria (which infects over 200 million people a year). She states that IBM teamed up with some researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of California at San Francisco to study how to predict outbreaks of dengue and malaria(Schneider). Due to their efforts and an application called Spatio Temporal Epidemiological Modeler (STEM) made by IBM researchers will have open access to use any kind of data and quickly correlate it with disease data (Schneider). The researchers found out that they were able to see how changes in local climate and temperature affected the spread of the disease. Now they can use that data to figure out where the next outbreaks will be (Schneider). The use of big data to determine when and where outbreaks will be could save millions of lives. All different types of companies gather data about their users and then use that data to make a guess the future, such as Amazon suggesting what someone may want to buy. So why hasnt the healthcare system done something like this? According to Jessica Leber One NYC hospital is preparing for the future where it can analyze and predict its patients health needs (Leber). At Mount Sinais Icahn School of Medicine Jeff Hammerbacher is setting up a second supercomputer called Demeter. Through collecting data on a large scale on massive computers like the one at Mount Sinais Icahn School of Medicine other hospitals may be able to

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operate like Amazon or Netflix to improve health outcomes, and to make discoveries about diagnosing, trating, and preventing diseases (Leber). Mount Sinais Icahn School of Medicine has already put in a mode called PACT that predicts the likelihood that a discharged patient will come back to the hospital within 90 days (Laber). This system will help patients get better healthcare and help provide them with better aftercare so they become less likely to return to a hospital. Just like most systems this one has limitations too. A major limitation for this new system is the hospital getting access to these new kinds of data since there are strict federal laws for patient privacy, and many hoops to jump threw to transfer patient data doctors may not want to experiment with gathering big data (Leber). Dudley believes that patients are going to start demanding more control over their health records and that privacy could start to become a very big concern in more ways than what people think it will just like how privacy has become a concern on the internet (Leber). Once there is more information about electronic medical records and more hospitals start using them, the more people will start to accept and like the idea of having control over their own health. According to The Big Data Revolution in Healthcare since the release of big data the discussion of what is right for patients and for the healthcare ecosystem has been transformed (Groves, Kayylia, Knott, and Van Kuiken ). There are now five key pathways that should be focused on. They consider what the healthcare system is spending and the impact on the patient. In The Big Data Revolution in Healthcare the five pathways are right living, right care, right provider, right value, and right innovation. The first pathway has to do with the patients taking control of and having an active role in their own treatment, by making lifestyle choices to help them stay healthy (Groves, Kayylia, Knott, and Van Kuiken ). People taking more control over their own health seems to be an important topic when discussing changing the healthcare system.

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Right care is all about patients getting the best and most appropriate treatment available, where right provider is about matching the right doctor to the patient to ensure they get the right care (Groves, Kayylia, Knott, and Van Kuiken ). The right value pathway is there to make sure that the providers and payers will continuously enhance healthcare value while preserving or improving its quality (Groves, Kayylia, Knott, and Van Kuiken ). Right Innovation talks about exploring new ways of doing things such as therapy, and ways to deliver care to patients. These five pathways are just the start of improving the healthcare system with the introduction of big data. Big data can have such a huge impact on the healthcare system and the health of everyone. The only major limitation with using big data in the health care system is patients privacy. The use of electronic medical records big data is going to help predict outbreak in the future and will be able to save lives. Privacy is a big issue with everything that people do but no matter what now that technology is becoming used more and more every day. Big data being used in the healthcare system will be beneficial in the long run for the health of many people. Being able to predict outbreaks, and help people take more control over their health by using big data could save people money, time, and lives. Big data in the future is going to become a very important tool for improving the lives of many.

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Work Cited "big data." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 31 Mar. 2014. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/big data>. Groves, Peter, Basel Kayylia, David Knott, and Steve Van Kuiken. "The Big Data Revolution in Healthcare." (2013): n. page. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. <http://lateralpraxis.com/download/The_big_data_revolution_in_healthcare.pdf>. Leber, Jessica. "In the Hospital of the Future, Big Data is One of Your Doctors." . N.p., 05 Dec 2013. Web. 9 Mar 2014. <http://www.fastcoexist.com/3022050/futurist-forum/in-thehospital-of-the-future-big-data-is-one-of-your-doctors>. Schneider, Stacey. "3 Examples of Big Data Making a Big Impact on Healthcare This Week." Pivotal P.O.V.. N.p., 02 Oct 2013. Web. 2 Mar 2014. <http://blog.gopivotal.com/p-o-v/3-examples-of-big-data-making-a-big-impact-onhealthcare-this-week>. Steinbrook, Robert. "Personally Controlled Online Health Data- The Next Big Thing in Medical Care?." New England Journal of Medicine. (2008): n. page. Web. 9 Mar. 2014. <www.NEJM.org>.