Background:

Big data analytics offers promise in many business sectors, and health care is looking at big data to provide answers to many age-related issues, particularly dementia and chronic disease management.

Objective:

The purpose of this review was to summarize the challenges faced by big data analytics and the opportunities that big data opens in health care.

Methods:

A total of 3 searches were performed for publications between January 1, 2010 and January 1, 2016 (PubMed/MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Google Scholar), and an assessment was made on content germane to big data in health care. From the results of the searches in research databases and Google Scholar (N=28), the authors summarized content and identified 9 and 14 themes under the categories Challenges and Opportunities, respectively. We rank-ordered and analyzed the themes based on the frequency of occurrence.

Results:

The top challenges were:

Issues of data structure,
Security,
Data standardization,
Storage and transfers, &
Managerial skills (such as data governance).

The top opportunities revealed were:

Quality improvement,
Population management &
Health,
Early detection of disease,
Data quality,
Structure, & Accessibility,
Improved decision making, &
Cost reduction.

Conclusion:

Big data analytics has the potential for positive impact and global implications; however, it must overcome some legitimate obstacles.

Keywords: big data, analytics, health care, human genome, electronic medical record.

Reference:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5138448/

Challenges & Opportunities of Big Data in HealthCare