Developing the Transdisciplinary Aging Research Agenda: New Developments in Big Data

How can Big Data Analytics Support People-Centred and Integrated Health Services: A Scoping Review

Introduction:

Health systems in high-income countries face a variety of challenges calling for a systemic approach to improve quality and efficiency. Putting people in the centre is the main idea of the WHO model of people-centred and integrated health services. Integrating health services is fuelled by an integration of health data with great potentials for decision support based on big data analytics. The research question of this paper is “How can big data analytics support people-centred and integrated health services?”

Methods:

A scoping review following the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses – Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR) statement was conducted to gather information on how big data analytics can support people-centred and integrated health services. The results were summarized in a role model of a people-centred and integrated health services platform illustrating which data sources might be integrated and which types of analytics might be applied to support the strategies of the people-centred and integrated health services framework to become more integrated across the continuum of care. Additional rapid literature reviews were conducted to generate frequency distributions of the most often used data types and analytical methods in the medical literature. Finally, the main challenges connected with big data analytics were worked out based on a content analysis of the results from the scoping literature review.

Results:

Based on the results from the rapid literature reviews the most often used data sources for big data analytics (BDA) in healthcare were biomarkers (39.3%) and medical images (30.9%). The most often used analytical models were support vector machines (27.3%) and neural networks (20.4%). The people-centred and integrated health services framework defines different strategic interventions for health services to become more integrated. To support all aspects of these interventions a comparably integrated platform of health-related data would be needed, so that a role model labelled as people-centred health platform was developed. Based on integrated data the results of the scoping review (n = 72) indicate, that big data analytics could for example support the strategic intervention of tailoring personalized health plans (43.1%), e.g. by predicting individual risk factors for different therapy options. Also BDA might enhance clinical decision support tools (31.9%), e.g. by calculating risk factors for disease uptake or progression. BDA might also assist in designing population-based services (26.4% by clustering comparable individuals in manageable risk groups e.g. mentored by specifically trained, non-medical professionals. The main challenges of big data analytics in healthcare were categorized in regulatory, (information-) technological, methodological, and cultural issues, whereas methodological challenges were mentioned most often (55.0%), followed by regulatory challenges (43.7%).

Discussion:

The BDA applications presented in this literature review are based on findings which have already been published. For some important components of the framework on people-centred care like enhancing the role of community care or establishing intersectoral partnerships between health and social care institutions only few examples of enabling big data analytical tools were found in the literature. Quite the opposite does this mean that these strategies have less potential value, but rather that the source systems in these fields need to be further developed to be suitable for big data analytics.

Conclusions:

Big data analytics can support people-centred and integrated health services e.g. by patient similarity stratifications or predictions of individual risk factors. But BDA fails to unfold its full potential until data source systems are still disconnected and actions towards a comprehensive and people-centred health-related data platform are politically insufficiently incentivized. This work highlighted the potential of big data analysis in the context of the model of people-centred and integrated health services, whereby the role model of the person-centered health platform can be used as a blueprint to support strategies to improve person-centered health care. Likely because health data is extremely sensitive and complex, there are only few practical examples of platforms to some extent already capable of merging and processing people-centred big data, but the integration of health data can be expected to further proceed so that analytical opportunities might also become reality in the near future.

The Role of Big Data in Aging and Older People’s Health Research: A Systematic Review and Ecological Framework

Big data has been prominent in studying aging and older people’s health. It has promoted modeling and analyses in biological and geriatric research (like cellular senescence), developed health management platforms, and supported decision-making in public healthcare and social security. However, current studies are still limited within a single subject, rather than flourished as interdisciplinary research in the context of big data. The research perspectives have not changed, nor has big data brought itself out of the role as a modeling tool. When embedding big data as a data product, analysis tool, and resolution service into different spatial, temporal, and organizational scales of aging processes, it would present as a connection, integration, and interaction simultaneously in conducting interdisciplinary research. Therefore, this paper attempts to propose an ecological framework for big data based on aging and older people’s health research. Following the scoping process of PRISMA, 35 studies were reviewed to validate our ecological framework. Although restricted by issues like digital divides and privacy security, we encourage researchers to capture various elements and their interactions in the human-environment system from a macro and dynamic perspective rather than simply pursuing accuracy.

Bringing Transdisciplinary Aging Research from Theory to Practice

There is a growing emphasis to use a transdisciplinary team approach to accelerate innovations in science to solve complex conditions associated with aging. However, the optimal organizational structure and process for how to accomplish transdisciplinary team science is unclear. In this forum, we illustrate our team's experience using transdisciplinary approaches to solve challenging and persistent problems for older adults living in urban communities. We describe our challenges and successes using the National Institutes of Health four-phase model of transdisciplinary team-based research. Using a de-identified survey, the team conducted an internal evaluation to identify features that created challenges including structural incongruities, inter-professional blind spots, group function, and group dynamics. This work resulted in the creation of the team's Transdisciplinary Conceptual Model. This model became essential to understanding the complex interplay between societal factors, community partners, and academic partners. Conducting internal evaluations of transdisciplinary team processes are integral for teams to move beyond the multi- and interdisciplinary niche and to reach true transdisciplinary success. More research is needed to develop measures that assess team transdisciplinary integration. Once the process of transdisciplinary integration can be reliably assessed, the next step would be to determine the impact of transdisciplinary team-science initiatives on aging communities.

Big Data Applications in Medical Field: A Literature Review

Digital imaging and medical reporting have acquired an essential role in healthcare, but the main challenge is the storage of a high volume of patient data. Although newer technologies are already introduced in the medical sciences to save records size, Big Data provides advancements by storing a large amount of data to improve the efficiency and quality of patient treatment with better care. It provides intelligent automation capabilities to reduce errors than manual inputs. Large numbers of research papers on big data in the medical field are studied and analyzed for their impacts, benefits, and applications. Big data has great potential to support the digitalization of all medical and clinical records and then save the entire data regarding the medical history of an individual or a group. This paper discusses big data usage for various industries and sectors. Finally, 12 significant applications for the medical field by the implementation of big data are identified and studied with a brief description. This technology can be gainfully used to extract useful information from the available data by analyzing and managing them through a combination of hardware and software. With technological advancement, big data provides health-related information for millions of patient-related to life issues such as lab tests reporting, clinical narratives, demographics, prescription, medical diagnosis, and related documentation. Thus, Big Data is essential in developing a better yet efficient analysis and storage healthcare services. The demand for big data applications is increasing due to its capability of handling and analyzing massive data. Not only in the future but even now, Big Data is proving itself as an axiom of storing, developing, analyzing, and providing overall health information to the physicians.