Opportunities and challenged of big data in clinical research
| Characteristic | Opportunities | Challenges |
| High volume | Large sample sizes and high statistical power | Data may be too large to store and process on a single computer, achievable with cloud computing. |
| High velocity | Can generate timely, relevant research | Risk of getting swamped with new data. |
| High variety | Potential to use novel sources of data, for example, images, smart devices, genomics | May need conversion into a usable format e.g. free text from medical notes to structured data. |
| Real world | Reflects real-world patients and clinical practice | Data often messy with missing data, needs lots of work to make research ready. |
| Not collected for research | Costs less to collect data | May not contain all the information you want, outcome data may be unavailable and not adjudicated. |