Big Data: Health Care’s Brave New World

Data has suddenly become the hot topic in health care, as the adoption of health care information technology (HIT) is poised to give hospitals an unprecedented amount of digital patient information. The Health Information Technology for Economic Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009, which, in part, mandated the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), has been the impetus behind this new era of what is being called “Big Data.” Although a number of hospitals initially had to be forced to embrace the technology, these facilities now realize they are starting to collect a wealth of patient information that could prove very valuable. As this shift gains momentum, observers are beginning to speculate about how the Big Data trend might change a number of established protocols that determine how patients are treated and how new products are approved and adopted.

The initial objective of this effort to pull health care delivery into the realm of 21st-century technology was to improve patient care and reduce costs. Therefore, every move made to...