Overview of Big Data in Healthcare

Abstract

Big data is a new ubiquitous term for massive data sets having large, more varied and complex structure with the complexities and difficulties of storing, analyzing and visualizing for further processes or results. The use of Big Data in health is a new and exciting field. A wide range of use cases for Big Data and analytics in healthcare will benefit best practice development, outcomes analysis, prediction, and surveillance. Consequently, the aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of Big Data in Healthcare systems including two applications of Big Data analysis in healthcare. The first one is understanding disease outcomes through analyzing Big Data, and the second one is the application of Big Data in genetics, biological, and molecular fields. Moreover, characteristics and challenges of healthcare Big Data analysis as well as technologies and software used for Big Data analysis are reviewed.