Big Healthcare Data: Survey of Challenges and Privacy

Abstract

The last century witnessed a dramatic leap in the shift towards digitizing the healthcare workflow and moving to e-patients' records. Health information is consistently becoming more diverse and complex, leading to the so-called massive data. Additionally, the demand for big data analytics in healthcare organizations is increasingly growing with the aim of providing a wide range of unprecedented potentials that are considered necessary for the provision of meaningful information about big data and improve the quality of healthcare delivery. It also aims to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare organizations; provide doctors and care providers better decision-making information and help them in the early detection of diseases. It also assists in evidence-based medicine and helps to minimize healthcare cost. However, a clear contradiction exists between the privacy and security of big data and its widespread usage. In this paper, the focus is on big data with respect to its characteristics, trends, and challenges. Additionally, the risks and benefits associated with data analytics were reviewed.