Finding a Foothold for Hospital Librarians in Big Data

In the NNLM Big Data in Healthcare: Exploring Emerging Roles course, we asked participants, as they progressed through the course to consider the following questions: Do you think health sciences librarians should get involved with big data in healthcare? Where should librarians get involved, if you think they should? If you think they should not, explain why. You may also combine a “should/should not” approach if you would like to argue both sides. NNLM will feature responses from different participants over the coming weeks. Written by Emily Schon, MLIS, AHIP, Librarian, Boston Children’s Hospital “Big Data” seems to be a term used everywhere – from giant purchasing sites like Amazon and streaming services like Netflix, to government agencies and universities. It certainly seems useful to look at giant amounts of data, analyze it, and see how it can project outcomes or improve users’ experiences. Thanks to this growing trend, hospitals are making great strides toward utilizing Big Data. Many are now collecting and storing enormous amounts of data about their patients, which data scientists and other individuals around the hospital can utilize to improve and support clinical care. As long-standing brokers of information, hospital librarians would seem to have a natural role in this new era of big data. Librarians possess many of the skills (e.g. data organization, management, etc.) that are and will be increasingly important in this realm. Yet, as thin...
Source: NN/LM Middle Atlantic Region Blog - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Data Science Education Source Type: news