Summary
Objectives: While big data offers enormous potential for improving healthcare delivery, many
of the existing claims concerning big data in healthcare are based on anecdotal reports
and theoretical vision papers, rather than scientific evidence based on empirical
research. Historically, the implementation of health information technology has resulted
in unintended consequences at the individual, organizational and social levels, but
these unintended consequences of collecting data have remained unaddressed in the
literature on big data. The objective of this paper is to provide insights into big
data from the perspective of people, social and organizational considerations.
Method: We draw upon the concept of persona to define the digital persona as the intersection
of data, tasks and context for different user groups. We then describe how the digital
persona can serve as a framework to understanding sociotechnical considerations of
big data implementation. We then discuss the digital persona in the context of micro,
meso and macro user groups across the 3 Vs of big data.
Results: We provide insights into the potential benefits and challenges of applying big data
approaches to healthcare as well as how to position these approaches to achieve health
system objectives such as patient safety or patient-engaged care delivery. We also
provide a framework for defining the digital persona at a micro, meso and macro level
to help understand the user contexts of big data solutions.
Conclusion: While big data provides great potential for improving healthcare delivery, it is
essential that we consider the individual, social and organizational contexts of data
use when implementing big data solutions.
Keywords
Big data - organizational and social issues - context - digital persona - patient-engaged
healthcare delivery
