The Limitations of Big Data in Healthcare

Abstract

It has become commonplace in modern society to collect and process large bodies of data in order to establish trends in the data and thereby identify business opportunities, areas of cost-saving, etc. This article questions whether, in the healthcare context, the data sets from biomarker-type tests are reliable indicators of dysfunction and whether the processing of such data sets can be expected to identify significant areas for improvement in the clinical context which would lead to significant improvements and cost-savings regarding the diagnosis and treatment of morbidity. In particular, there is not yet an accepted understanding of the mechanisms which are responsible for maintaining the body's highly regulated function therefore the idea that the current plethora of diagnostic tests can be accurate measures of the rate of pathological onset of a particular medical condition(s) is only an assumption and may have significant inherent limitations.The development of the first mathematical model of the autonomic nervous system by Grakov leads us to question basic assumptions upon which modern medicine is based and whether large-scale data mining of available data sets will lead to a better understanding e.g. (i) Is the biomarker the cause or the consequence of the condition? (ii) Does the marker relate to the genotype, phenotype or neither? (iii) How does the brain regulate the autonomic nervous system and the coherent function of the organ networks/physiological systems?

A Discussion of the Current Limitations of Diabetes Etiology

“…Ewing recognised that these fundamental objectives had been completed by Grakov in the period 1981/2-1997-2006 and were incorporated into the Strannik software. Papers followed which compared the two different techniques [33,34]; identified fundamental limitations of the techniques being deployed to achieve such objectives [34,35], in particular the reliance upon 'big data'; determined that the brain acts as a neuromodulator [36] of the autonomic nervous system; that Grakov had developed a screening test which can screen for the complex pathological correlates of diabetes and diabetic comorbidities including Alzheimer's Disease [37][38][39][40][41][42]; and had understood how this led to an understanding of the multilevel nature of brain function in particular of the mechanism which regulated the stability of the autonomic nervous system and the coherent function of the physiological systems [43].…”

The Neurological, Multisystemic, PolyGenomic and Multipathological Basis of Aging (the ‘Autonomic’ Hypothesis)

“…Moreover the measured parameters e.g. of a protein or other biochemical; are often unable to delineate between the coiled and reactive component versus the uncoiled and unreactive component [100]; whether the measured parameter is a systemic parameter or a molecular parameter; and/or whether it is a reliable indicator of pathological onset and/or progression.…”