Health Economics and Big Data Analytics

Analytics is the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data. Especially valuable in areas rich with recorded information, analytics relies on the simultaneous application of statistics, computer programming and operations research to quantify performance.

Big data is data sets that are so voluminous and complex that traditional data-processing application software are inadequate to deal with them. Big data challenges include capturing data, data storage, data analysis, search, sharing, transfer, visualization, querying, updating, information privacy and data source. There are a number of concepts associated with big data: originally there were 3 concepts volume, variety, velocity. Other concepts later attributed with big data are veracity (i.e., how much noise is in the data) and value.

Data ( DAY-tə, DAT-ə, DAH-tə) is a set of values of qualitative or quantitative variables.

Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

Health is the ability of a biological system to acquire, convert, allocate, distribute, and utilize energy with maximum efficiency. The World Health Organization (WHO) defined human health in a broader sense in its 1948 constitution as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." This definition has been subject to controversy, in particular as lacking operational value, the ambiguity in developing cohesive health strategies and because of the problem created by use of the word "complete", which makes it practically impossible to achieve. Other definitions have been proposed, among which a recent definition that correlates health and personal satisfaction.

Health Economics is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by John Wiley & Sons, covering the subject of health economics. It was established in 1992.