How Can Big Data Improve Innovation and Health Care?

The use of “big data” is growing rapidly in health-related research, but how can it be leveraged to improve innovation and health care?

Join experts from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), academia and the pharmaceutical industry for a conference, "Leveraging Big Data II: What Does It Mean for Improving Product Development and Health Care," on February 11 as they explore current challenges with using and analyzing big data.

For many years, efforts have been made to improve database development and data "warehousing" by pharmaceutical companies and government entities. Today we’re seeing even more emphasis on big data—a collection of data sets so large and complex that they becomes difficult to process using traditional database management tools or data processing applications. When it comes to health care research, one of the challenges is that there is no universal understanding of what big data is or what it can do.

Conference sessions include:

• Use of Big and Real-World Data by Pharma: More than Data Warehousing
  Aaron Galaznik, MD, Senior Director, Real-World Data and Analytics, Pfizer, Inc
• Leveraging Real-World Data and Analytics in the Device Industry
  Thomas Abbott, PhD, Head, Health Care Informatics, Johnson & Johnson, Medical Devices and Diagnostics
• Janus Clinical Trials Repository: An Update and Insights into Future Directions
  Lilliam Rosario, PhD, Director, Office of Computational Science, FDA
• IMEDS: Sentinel and OMOP Programs
  Jane Reese-Coulbourne, MS, ChE, Executive Director, Reagan-Udall Foundation, FDA
• Big Data and the "Research Harbor" Concept
  Kate Tracy, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine
• Big Data and Data Visualization: Extracting Insights from Electronic Health Records
  Ben Shneiderman, PhD, Director, Human Computer Interaction Lab, University of Maryland, College Park
• FDA Use of Big Data in Modeling and Simulations
  Speaker TBD

The event will take place on Tuesday, February 11, 2014 from 10 am - 4 pm at the Southern Management Corporation Campus Center, University of Maryland, Baltimore, 621 West Lombard Street, Baltimore, MD.

View the full agenda, accommodations and get parking details and directions.

This conference is sponsored by the University of Maryland Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (M-CERSI) and the FDA, in collaboration with the National Pharmaceutical Council.