Big Data and Health Care: Challenges and Opportunities for Coordinated Policy Development in the EU

Figures & data

Table 1. Key EU Health Sector Objectives and Scope of Interest to EU Policy Makers. Source: Adapted from the European Commission.^11,12

EU Health Sector Objectives	Scope of Interest to EU Policy Makers
• Effectiveness	A key component of health care quality and health system performance, effectiveness is defined as health systems’ ability to produce positive health outcomes across the population. Data on comparative effectiveness of health systems can be informed by EU-wide indicators.
• Accessibility	A fundamental tenet of European health care that is characterized by ease of access to medical treatment. EU states are obligated to administer socially inclusive health systems.
• Resilience	Health systems must be resilient to both fiscal and nonfiscal challenges; that is, they must be able to quickly adapt to unexpected challenges in supply and demand. The EC is tasked with supporting member states in this work through analysis, forecasts, and reform recommendations.
• Research and innovation	EU research and data analysis is prioritized to help tackle health afflictions and societal challenges and promote learning. Some research is of such scale and complexity that it requires EU level coordination to improve efficiency in use of resources to address common challenges, such as improving health.

Table 2. Literature Review Search Terms (Search Levels). PM, PubMed; GS, Google Scholar; EL, EconLit, S, Scopus

String	Terms
String 1: big data (search level: 1^st + 2^nd)	PM: (big data [tiab]) OR (big data [tw])
	GS/EL: (“big data”)
	S: (“big data” [title/abs/keyw])
AND
String 2: health care (search level: 1^st + 2^nd)	PM: (healthcare [tiab]) OR (health care) OR (health) OR (health care system) OR (delivery of health care [mh])
	GS: (health [title]) OR (healthcare [title]) OR (“health care” [title]) OR (“health care system” [title])
	S: (healthcare [title/abs/keyw]) OR (health [title/abs/keyw]) OR (“health care system” [title/abs/keyw])
AND
String 3: policy (search level: 2^nd)	PM: (polic* [tiab]) OR (legislation [tiab]) OR (legislation [mh]) OR (legislat* [tiab])
	GS: (policy) OR (policies) OR (legislation) OR (legislative)
	S: (polic*[title/abs/keyw]) OR (legislation [title/abs/keyw]) OR (legislat* [title/abs/keyw])