Whither “big data”?

Richard J. Bookman, Ph.D.Miller School of Medicine

University of Miamirbookman@miami.edu

@rbookman

AAMC 2014 GREAT/GRAND MeetingFort Worth, Tx

September 19, 2014

Big data is like teen sex. Everybody is talking about it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it.

Dan Ariely, Center for Advanced HindsightDuke University

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2819918

Gartner Hype Cycle Update, August 2014

The 3 V’s of Big Data

Doug Laney, Gartner, 2001; http://www.gi.de/nc/service/informatiklexikon/detailansicht/article/big-data/druckversion.html

The continued expansion of the digital universe creates unprecedented

opportunities and pitfalls for biomedical research.

p53>70,000 publications

>$75 million/year from NIH for “p53” + “kinase”

>200 NIH awards/year

http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2623330.2623667

"Those who ignore statistics are condemned to reinvent it."

Brad EfronStatistics DepartmentStanford University1997 lecture

Quoted in: DOI: 10.1111/j.1751-5823.2001.tb00474.x

Some Q’s to consider

• What are the big data opportunities for the research at my institution? (EMR, ‘Omics, games,?)

• What infrastructure do we need to do the work?

• Who do I need on the team to take advantage of this opportunity? What skills?

Building the digital research enterprise and taking scientific advantage of big data

is hard, slow, and expensiveand…

you probably don’t have the people you need.