New health data will need measurement, storage

Healthcare providers have become adept at measuring information about their patients. As the big data trend expands to the medical sector, organizations will soon have to consider how to securely store and manage a new round of confidential figures that could have a direct impact on well being.

According to Wired, experts see the healthcare industry as a field on the edge of a new and exciting outlook. There are many governance and usage questions to ask as vast data stores become mainstream. Biomedical researcher John Dudley told the source that leaders will soon have to carefully inspect ways to keep data private and prevent breaches of patient confidentiality.

As with so many other fields, healthcare professionals will need to ponder data quality and other important metrics to do with their new information reserves. Not every record or fact is naturally useful - firms need processes to draw meaning from their archives.

Some doctors have already begun integrating advanced data into their plans. According to Phys.org, the National Science Foundation recently gave over $1 million to a research team hoping to draw meaning from patient information held by the Children's Hospital Los Angeles.