Big Data, Healthcare, and the Evolution of the Health Science Librarian

In the NNLM Big Data in Healthcare: Exploring Emerging Roles course, we asked participants, as they progressed through the course to consider the following questions: Do you think health sciences librarians should get involved with big data in healthcare? Where should librarians get involved, if you think they should? If you think they should not, explain why. You may also combine a “should/should not” approach if you would like to argue both sides. NNLM will feature responses from different participants over the coming weeks. Written by: Lisa Mastin, Medical Librarian, WellStar Atlanta Medical Center, Atlanta, GA Data is part of life and the amount of data being created, captured, stored, and analyzed is expanding exponentially. In the healthcare sector, Big Data is rapidly changing the landscape. Health Science librarians should get involved with big data in healthcare, at least at a basic level, because if they do not, they risk losing the ability to engage with the user (i.e. researcher, clinician, patron), in a user-centered environment. I see health science librarians working in several areas of data science. At the very least, and possibly the most essential element, would be to acquire an understanding of the language used in data science. Although I do not believe all librarians should become data scientists or even work with big data (several postings in this course expressed a similar opinion), I do believe that all health science librarians need to know the te...
Source: Dragonfly - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Data Science Source Type: news