Big Data: What Is It and What Does It Mean for Cardiovascular Research and Prevention Policy

Abstract

Over the past decade, there has been explosive growth in the amount of healthcare-related data generated and interest in harnessing this data for research purposes and informing public policy. Outside of healthcare, specialized software has been developed to tackle the problems that voluminous data creates, and these techniques could be applicable in several areas of cardiovascular research. Cardiovascular risk analysis may benefit from the inclusion of patient genetic and health record data, while cardiovascular epidemiology could benefit from crowd-sourced environmental data. Some of the most significant advances may come from the ability to predict and respond to events in real-time—such as assessing the impact of new public policy at the community level on a weekly basis through electronic health records or monitoring a patient’s cardiovascular health remotely with a smartphone.