Data has
completely changed the world, and it hasn’t been a gradual change either. The
boom of data has made an immediate impact on many things. “Ninety per cent of
the data in the world has been created in the past two years alone”(BBC News 1).
This statistic shows just how quickly data has grown and how much data we
currently have today.
Data
has improved processes to make them easier, quicker and more efficient. It’s a
win all around for everyone involved. In the case of DNA there are “three
billion letters, which denotes an individual’s unique DNA sequence – used to
take years to achieve. Now it takes less than a week”(BBC News 1). This is
incredible how far the technology has come.
Due to this improvement scientist and doctors can look into more cases
of diseases and figure out cures faster than ever before. With the amount of
data they are supplied with it makes their jobs easier. In return they will be
able to find cures to diseases that no one could think they could find. This
will benefit all of society by curing diseases and helping everyone affected by
them.
This is already
starting to happen in the United Kingdom. GPs already have 60 million records
on file in their database. This will help doctors find links between patients
to discover new information about a disease and how it is formed and how to
find it and stop it.
All of these
technology breakthroughs are great, however it isn’t as simple as it sounds.
Having these many records on file, a doctor cannot look at millions of files at
once and come up with a solution. There has to be a system that can simply the
data to make it comprehensible for the doctors to understand. Once this problem
can be answered the medical world will be a whole new place. It will be a
victory for the doctors, a victory for the patients and general public, and a
victory for the brains behind the databases.
In my opinion this
is fantastic. I am all for the progression of technology in the medical field. Whatever
can make the doctors jobs easier to cure diseases I am all for. I will give up
my medical records any day of the week if it means it could potentially save
another persons life. Everyone has to contribute in this situation for the
greater good of the people. If everyone pitches in, we could make the world a
healthier and happier place.
Works Cited
1) "The Challenge of Saving Lives with 'big Data' - BBC
News." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2016.
To me, this article really highlighted the importance of the field of biostatistics. Biostatisticians are people who dedicate themselves to studying biological data, especially medical data. The practices of biostatisticians can be greatly facilitated through shared medical data. Analysts studying the correlations between patients in different parts of the worlds can find causes, treatments, and cures to diseases - but this still takes time. In short, our technology-based world needs more people (or alternate methods) to study medical data to make great progress in medicine.
ReplyDeleteIt is incredible to think how far scientists have come with the information they get from DNA. One usually thinks of DNA being used at crime scenes to convict a criminal. However, analyzing the data doctors and scientist work together to see why some people get a disease and others are immune. This data will drive the research to find a cure for diseases we thought would be incurable. This is an incredible use of data. This article gives every family hope for the future.
ReplyDeleteTechnology never stops in playing a very important role in our daily lives. However, in this circumstance this gives scientists the extra edge they all been waiting for. I agree with Brendan that this is a great achievement for developing something to help doctors in saving many lives to cure diseases.
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