Reflections on Big Data in Healthcare: Exploring Emerging Roles

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: Patricia L. Smith, Impact and Dissemination Librarian at Galter Health Sciences Library, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL Big data in healthcare is a booming area with many facets and ample opportunities for library involvement. The question is not should librarians get involved, but how can librarians get involved? Librarians are natural stewards for big data—we have unique skills that we can leverage to assist researchers, particularly in citing data, data management, information ethics, and data visualization. The most natural, and perhaps easiest, segue into big data for librarians is in the area of data citation. Researchers are expected to cite their sources—but what about data sets? Data sets are informing practice and are integral parts of the research process, but it is not yet standard practice to cite data. Due to this gap, it is very difficult to trace the use of this data, which hinders the overall research process...
Source: The Cornflower - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Data Science Big Data Data Management Source Type: news