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Director's Letter: BIG3 Big Data, Big Ideas, Big Research

Seth A. Eisen, M.D., M.Sc.

On March 29, 2012 the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced the federal government's Big Data Research and Development Initiative. Included in the initiative are the goals of advancing core technologies for analyzing and sharing huge quantities of data, harnessing Big Data knowledge and technologies to accelerate scientific discovery, using Big Data to transform teaching and learning, fostering public-private Big Data partnerships, and developing a Big Data workforce.

VA investigators are at the forefront of Big Data research, since they have access to vast, detailed Big Data health information (e.g., 2 billion clinical notes, 5 billion laboratory tests), an expanding cadre of Big Data investigators, established non-VA Big Data relationships, a clear mission to apply Big Data methods to improve Veteran health, and strong programmatic support for the Big Data concept. VA investigators are active participants in the Big Data initiative through ORD's support of the CHIR, ProWatch, VINCI, OMOP, iEHR, GenISIS, and MVP programs (download http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/big_ data_press_release_final_2.pdf for details).

Important Big Data issues for VA investigators to consider addressing are: using NLP (natural language processing) to extract useful clinical and research information from the VA's vast text data resources, transforming information into a format that can be readily applied by providers and patients at points of care, expanding the application of Big Data to improve personalized medicine, and using Big Data concepts to predict adverse and beneficial health outcomes.

Regardless of your current research interests, your careers will be impacted by the Big Data initiative, and the concepts and projects it will spawn. I encourage you to watch the two hour scientific discussion of the rationale and vision for the initiative, posted on the National Science Foundation's website. Please visit http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_videos.jsp?cntn_id=123607&media_id=72174&org=NSF .

Seth Eisen, M.D., M.Sc.
Director, HSR&D


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