Big Data Technologies in Healthcare report: Needs, opportunities and challenges of the health sector

The Big Data Technologies in Healthcare report by BDVA (Big Data Value Association) analyses the needs, opportunities and challenges facing the health sector in different areas of work.

According to the report, some of the most specific challenges presented by the health sector are:

-Ability to access data, availability and quality: There are many data distributed to different repositories around the world, and each day thousands of new data are produced, so appropriate and effective ways must be found to make the most of this volume of data.

-Use of Big Data by patients and professionals: Focuses have to be developed that allow human beings and machines to cooperate more closely in exploiting big data to achieve better management of their health.

-Analysis of multimodal data: Technologies are needed that allow all data in the health universe to be managed, analysed and exploited to improve the quality of healthcare and reduce health costs.

-Knowledge in health: Alongside the large, mixed series of data, there is a great deal of medical knowledge on health. This knowledge is found in the books, research works… but also with the health professionals themselves.

-Ethics and privacy: In a world with such a volume of data, greater complexity and automation of clinical data in processing and support to decision-making, specific attention must be paid to the ethical problems of these new technologies.

About BDVA

Big Data Value Association (BDVA) is a non-profit making organisation formed by 150 industrial groups, SMEs and research groups working in the area of Big Data and large volumes of data.

Created in 2014 and governed by Belgian legislation, the organisation represents the private environment of the Big Data Value Public Private Partnership (BDV PPP), an alliance of companies of the European Commission that represents the public sector.