Summary
Objectives: This synopsis presents a selection for the IMIA (International Medical Informatics
Association) Yearbook 2014 of excellent research in the broad field of Sensor, Signal,
and Imaging Informatics published in the year 2013, with a focus on Big Data and Smart
Health Technologies
Methods: We performed a systematic initial selection and a double blind peer review process
to find the best papers in this domain published in 2013, from the PubMed and Web
of Science databases. A set of MeSH keywords provided by experts was used.
Results: Big Data are collections of large and complex datasets which have the potential to
capture the whole variability of a study population. More and more innovative sensors
are emerging, allowing to enrich these big databases. However they become more and
more challenging to process (i.e. capture, store, search, share, transfer, exploit)
because traditional tools are not adapted anymore.
Conclusions: This review shows that it is necessary not only to develop new tools specifically
designed for Big Data, but also to evaluate their performance on such large datasets.
Keywords
Big data - smart health technologies