Big data and artificial intelligence in Orthopaedics: Trends and future directions

Orthopaedic surgery is on the cusp of entering a new data-driven era, fuelled by big data and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Medical data is traditional derived from manually inputted medical records. A far richer set of data may be collected via automated means and from population registries leading to an explosion of large and complex datasets termed "big data" which are not well handled by traditional processing tools. Big data truly becomes useful when coupled with the ability to meaningfully process it with current generation AI. These two advances have reshaped possibilities in research and clinical applications. This narrative review outlines emerging opportunities and challenges brought about big data and AI while also exploring the necessary guardrails that are needed for safe application and sustainable progress.