Big heart data: advancing health informatics through data sharing in cardiovascular imaging

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular informatics
• Health data science
• Medical research

Background:

• Heart disease burden is increasing due to rising obesity and diabetes.
• Data sharing is vital for advancing cardiovascular research, understanding disease, and developing therapeutics.
• Funding agencies and publishers increasingly mandate data reuse.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide a rationale for enhanced data sharing in cardiovascular research.
• To review progress in cardiovascular data sharing and informatics.
• To highlight the potential of large epidemiological studies for collaboration.

Main Methods:

• Review of current data sharing practices and infrastructure in cardiovascular health.
• Survey of progress in cardiovascular informatics and open database resources.
• Identification of opportunities for collaborative efforts using large-scale data.

Main Results:

• Tools and infrastructure exist for archiving diverse cardiovascular data, including imaging data.
• Meta-analyses can combine disparate data for enhanced statistical power and unique comparisons.
• Open benchmark datasets are essential for validating analysis algorithms and comparing results.

Conclusions:

• Increased data sharing is critical for advancing cardiovascular research and developing effective therapeutics.
• Collaborative efforts leveraging large cardiovascular datasets can facilitate algorithm benchmarking and disease modeling.
• Open data resources and shared informatics are key to improving cardiovascular health outcomes.