Medical Big Data for Research Use: Current Status and Related Issues

Advances in the computerization of information and development of technology have mitigated restrictions on handling of a large amount of information. This has resulted in growth of expectations for the use of large-scale databases, or so-called "big data." This is also the case in the field of healthcare. Projects that involve building of the national receipt database (NDB) of medical fee bill (receipt) information and special health check-up information based on the Act on Assurance of Medical Care for Elderly People and the development of medical information databases have been pursued by the national government, and considerable attention has also been focused on researches conducted through the secondary uses of publicly collected data. Aside from these trends, there are numerous projects which collect diagnosis procedure combination (DPC) data to build large-scale databases for research purposes. Following to the ethics guidelines for epidemiologic studies, they collect and analyze anonymized DPC data from cooperating institutions. This communication concentrates on the use of DPC data, and outlines the scale of data currently available for research use. Examples on the use of DPC data will be shown for analysis on the current status of clinical practice from the microscopic perspective and macroscopic analysis of community medical care provision. Additionally, potential for extending studies to long-term outcomes research, limitations and issues related to the use of medical big data will also be discussed.