Electronic Records, Registries, and the Development of "Big Data": Crowd-Sourcing Quality toward Knowledge

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Health Informatics
• Data Science

Background:

• Cancer remains a significant health burden, especially for the aging US population.
• Traditional cancer treatment advances face challenges like funding, cost, and quality concerns.
• Disappointing clinical outcomes necessitate innovative approaches in cancer care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the history of oncology data collection, including early data registries.
• To explore future directions in big data research for oncology.
• To highlight recent efforts using electronic health records for real-time cancer outcome improvement.

Main Methods:

• Review of historical oncology data collection methods.
• Exploration of big data" and "electronic health record" (EHR) applications in cancer research.
• Analysis of current technological innovations in healthcare data.

Main Results:

• Historical data registries laid the groundwork for modern data collection.
• Big data analytics and EHRs offer promising avenues for cancer research.
• Harnessing integrated data can lead to rapid, real-time improvements in cancer care.

Conclusions:

• Technological innovation, particularly big data and EHRs, is crucial for advancing cancer research.
• Future research should focus on leveraging comprehensive datasets for personalized cancer treatment.
• Integrating diverse data sources holds the key to improving individualized cancer-related outcomes.