Yearb Med Inform 2016; 25(01): 240-246
DOI: 10.15265/IY-2016-021
IMIA and Schattauer GmbH
Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart

Public Health and Epidemiology Informatics

A. Flahault
1   Institute of Global Health, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
2   Centre Virchow-Villermé, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France
,
A. Bar-Hen
2   Centre Virchow-Villermé, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France
,
N. Paragios
3   Center for Visual Computing, CentraleSupélec, University of Paris-Saclay, Saint-Aubin, France
4   Inria, France
› Institutsangaben
Weitere Informationen

Publikationsverlauf

10. November 2016

Publikationsdatum:
06. März 2018 (online)

Summary

Objectives: The aim of this manuscript is to provide a brief overview of the scientific challenges that should be addressed in order to unlock the full potential of using data from a general point of view, as well as to present some ideas that could help answer specific needs for data understanding in the field of health sciences and epidemiology.

Methods: A survey of uses and challenges of big data analyses for medicine and public health was conducted. The first part of the paper focuses on big data techniques, algorithms, and statistical approaches to identify patterns in data. The second part describes some cutting-edge applications of analyses and predictive modeling in public health.

Results: In recent years, we witnessed a revolution regarding the nature, collection, and availability of data in general. This was especially striking in the health sector and particularly in the field of epidemiology. Data derives from a large variety of sources, e.g. clinical settings, billing claims, care scheduling, drug usage, web based search queries, and Tweets.

Conclusion: The exploitation of the information (data mining, artificial intelligence) relevant to these data has become one of the most promising as well challenging tasks from societal and scientific viewpoints in order to leverage the information available and making public health more efficient.