A Practical Guide to Evaluating and Using Big Data in Digestive Disease Research

Across almost all domains of biomedical investigation, the past decade has witnessed an explosive increase in the availability and use of large datasets, so-called big data.1,2 Although the definitions of "big data" vary, the term generally refers to massive amounts of complex information generated by humans or machines (eg, artificial intelligence) that are too large to store, process, analyze, or interpret using conventional methods. Instead, owing to their size and complexity, these large datasets must be processed and analyzed using highly sophisticated computer algorithms and programs.