On January 12, 2016 in his State of the Union address, President Obama called for America to become “the country that cures cancer once and for all” As he introduced the “Moonshot” initiative that will be guided by Vice President Joe Biden.
Dr. Tom Coburn, former Republican Senator from the state of Oklahoma and three time cancer survivor, in his January 14th article in the Wall Street Journal ‘A Cancer ‘Moonshot’ Needs Big Data ; indicates that “harnessing that information (“big data”) would allow us to personalize prevention and treatment based on the genetic characteristics of a patient’s tumor, family history and personal preferences, while minimizing unwanted side effects.”
On February 5, 2016 on CNN’s Global Public Square show: Big data could be a health care game-changer author and doctor, David Agus tells Fareed Zakaria how using big data and examining thousands of cases might increase how long we live and our quality of life.
At this time in our history, with the continuing electronic capture of patient information from intake to discharge, the opportunity could not be brighter to cure cancer. The Obama administration’s 2010 initiative to capture electronic health records has enabled the opportunity to improve patient care, increase patient participation, improve diagnostics and patient outcomes, improve care coordination, as well as create practice efficiencies and cost savings.
The electronic capture of patient information has created medical big data repositories. One such repository is the American College of Surgeons/American Cancer Society’s National Cancer Database – NCDB. Resources such as these will benefit by utilizing knowledge management and information architecture techniques to identify and unlock knowledge patterns contained within these big data sources. In several of my blog post dating back to January 2013, I wrote about the advantages of applying KM to big data. From understanding Contextual Intelligence KM and Big Data ; to devoting a chapter on KM and Big Data in my upcoming book KM in Practice; I believe when executed the right way KM, powered by information architecture will provide the essential ingredient when applied to big data. This will enable researchers to discover better treatments and possible cures for many diseases including cancer and we will realize the dream presented by the Moonshot initiative!
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