Medicine’s Big Problem with Big Data: Information Hoarding

Researchers at IBM, Berg Pharma, Memorial Sloan Kettering, UC Berkeley and other institutions are exploring how artificial intelligence and big data can be used to develop better treatments for diseases (as we explored in a separate story on Saturday).

But one of the biggest challenges for making full use of these computational tools in medicine is that vast amounts of data have been locked away — or never digitized in the first place.

The results of earlier research efforts or the experiences of individual patients are often trapped in the archives of pharmaceutical companies or the paper filing cabinets of doctors’ offices.

By James Temple

Full Story: http://recode.net/2014/06/07/medicines-big-problem-with-big-data-information-hoarding/