Applying "big data" and business intelligence insights to improving clinical care for cancer

The current business intelligence capability of health information systems used in Australian health systems does not provide clinicians with sufficient actionable insights relevant to their own clinical settings. This paper explores ways to improve clinical outcomes by linking different multiple datasets held in a diverse set of clinical, research and other repositories in many different organisations. This research aims to realise this potential by identifying the most effective ways to utilise the growing amount of data generated by cancer care information systems through improved data linkage and application of big data and emerging business intelligence applications. Given the growing number and sophistication of big data in health initiatives and the insights that current big data researchers are producing, the issue of how well they are taken up and applied by clinicians becomes more important. For that reason, this paper aims to realise this potential by researching the most effective ways for clinicians to utilise the growing amount of data generated by cancer care information systems.