Big data and finding the evidence

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• Format Cartoons
• Language/s English
• Target Audience Further education, Self-directed learning
• EBM Stage 0 - Why EBM?
• Difficulty Advanced

Key Concepts addressed

• 2-2b All fair comparisons and outcomes should be reported
• 1-2d More data is not necessarily better data, whatever the source

Details

“Big data” is a term used to describe the use of large-scale data processing technologies to analyse lots of different data sets in order to generate insights into performance, behvaviour and trends.

Many people think that Big Data offers tremendous potential in health care in analysing health outcomes of large populations.  However, as this cartoon illustrates, these new technologies could still be stymied by old problems, such as failure to disclose the data in the first place.

The cartoon first appeared on the Spanish language website Sin estetoscopio

• View the original in Spanish
• View Testing Treatments in Spanish
• Find out more about the background to Big Data on Wikipedia