Law Commons^™

The Use And Misuse Of Biomedical Data: Is Bigger Really Better?”, Sharona Hoffman, Andy Podgurski

Faculty Publications

Very large biomedical research databases, containing electronic health records (HER) and genomic data from millions of patients, have been heralded recently for their potential to accelerate scientific discovery and produce dramatic improvements in medical treatments. Research enabled by these databases may also lead to profound changes in law, regulation, social policy, and even litigation strategies. Yet, is “big data” necessarily better data?

This paper makes an original contribution to the legal literature by focusing on what can go wrong in the process of biomedical database research and what precautions are necessary to avoid critical mistakes. We address three main reasons …