Big Data Working Thesis

Working Thesis: Big data will  affect research studies in the medical field not only related to the test subject’s (patient’s) private medical history, but also the speed at which a study could be completed.

1. An idea to think about: could it link other researchers with similar research studies together to help solve medical mysteries faster…?

Possible Sources:

1. Design and Development of a Medical Big Data Processing System Based on Hadoop, Qin Yao:
   1. This source was a research paper that discussed how the medical field uses big data, but that it doesn’t work efficiently enough to help them all of the time. The objective of their research was to build upon already existing database systems, and to add their own processing agent (Hadoop) to greatly enhance the speed at which data is collected. They also used many algorithms to not only enhance speed, but to gather user’s data and match them with similar users quicker. (Research Paper)
2. A data analysis framework for biomedical big data: Application on mesoderm differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells, Benjamin Ulfenborg:
   1. This source was mainly focused on the research of the stem cells, but it also talks about ways to improve the medical databases currently available. They also touch upon finding new and better ways to input information so that other users can access it more quickly. Their hope was that it would also connect them with other researchers doing similar work. (Research Paper)
3. Medical big data: promise and challenges, Choong Ho Lee:
   1. This article is going to help me discuss the naysayer argument of my paper. It focuses on the negatives of medical big data and how they will affect the medical field in the future. Although it was a naysayer piece, it did not neglect to touch upon the positives related to medical big data. (Research Paper)

Next Steps: I still feel that I need to find another naysayer argument to help strengthen my own argument. I’ve found a lot of positive pieces related to medical big data which is good, but I need one more naysayer to broaden and expand on the argument. I also want to take another look at the New York Times article to see if it will align  with my argument. I think my sources are very heavy on research papers, so I think I might try to find an article or educational journal post to compare that source to my others. I’m not quite ready for a rough draft because although I have my working thesis, I need to strengthen the claims I think I may be using in the paper.