Crowdsourcing the Million Brains Initiative —Reply

In Reply The enthusiasm expressed for the Million Brains Initiative and the thoughtful consideration of ethical facets by Byram and Illes are much appreciated. The authors underscore a few of the inevitable ramifications that will undoubtedly parallel the realization of precision stroke medicine and the transformation from blissful ignorance to big data in stroke medicine. The current paradigm for cerebrovascular disorders from stroke to dementia is founded on individual clinical symptoms that prompt the acquisition, routine interpretation, and archiving of neuroimaging results. Impressions are readily generated and documented in the electronic health record of every individual. Such imaging data are unnecessarily isolated, antithetically preventing the use of the big data approaches that are required to define the incidentaloma, or 1-in-a-million concept. Similarly, normative changes in the brain across the age span and the construct of cerebrovascular health are only achievable by disrupting this archaic and disconnected health care framework. Crowdsourcing such data will likely unfold like the methods enveloping all aspects of life in the postdigital age, with empowered patients rapidly gaining and reclaiming access as the owners of their health care data.
Source: JAMA Neurology - Category: Neurology Source Type: research