Big Data: A bucket of chicken, a big blue object and a dark cockpit

This year at the 2014 Accountable Care & Health IT Strategies Summit in Chicago, our CMO Terry Fouts moderated a discussion on community analytics. Dr. Fouts hosted the panel with Louis Ralofsky, Director Clinical Operations of eQHealth Solutions and Abha Agrawal, MD, VP, Medical Affairs and COO of Norwegian American Hospital.

Dr. Fouts kicks off the discussion by giving an overview of the current state of big data by using some unique comparisons.

First, he compares big data to a bucket of chicken — the bucket is filled with wings and breasts but no matter how much you shake the bucket, you can’t re-create a full chicken. Big data can’t always be aggregated into something meaningful.

Next he discusses the “Big Blue Object,” and how the future of healthcare could involve IBM’s Watson running decision making to avoid errors within the healthcare industry.

Lastly, Dr. Fouts explores what he calls the “dark cockpit problem.” These days pilots receive an immense amount of data and have to interpret and apply it in real time – which is very similar to healthcare industry where we must determine in real time what is actionable data and what is just noise.

Watch Dr. Fouts discuss the bucket of chicken, the big blue object and the dark cockpit problem here.