In the era of industry 4.0 and the rush to digitization, big data are the raw material from which we can extract knowledge. However, they are not always used at the best o their capability and the current news is full of scandals about privacy violations perpetrated by big tech companies. Despite this, it is reductive to define big data and their use as always unacceptable, especially when they can help us live better and longer.
Currently there is an algorithm that decides what to show and what to hide on our devices (special kind of advertisements or only some types of news). This system should be transparent and accessible. If we want to benefit from being part of this new global network we have to accept that our data is stored somewhere and is out of our control. Governments are taking an interest in this issue in two ways: by preventing the collection and centralisation of data or by creating new and very complicated laws on the use and sale of data. But this approach does not help us find new knowledge and create new insights into our lives. Big data themselves are incomprehensible; they are like huge mountains where software are the digging machines and analysts are like miners who can conduct researches from public data for private purposes (such as analysis of habits to trace an individual’s geographical position). A possible ethical approach to big data is the exact opposite; starting from private data in order to achieve a public purpose (in the case of having access to a company’s data that proves they are out of step with environmental protection laws). Transparency and accessibility are therefore key elements in improving living conditions. The problem with privacy is that the currently solutions that are proposed are simple ones and not the best solutions for everyone, and it is only on the basis of transparency that a common trust can be built.
A single patient during a one-day hospital can generate up to one hundred million data points through the medical equipment that monitors him. This data can be shared with doctors from other hospitals even on other continents and come back to the starting point full of new information and insights. This collective knowledge, assisted also by artificial intelligences, helps to diagnose better, faster and more accurately.
A first ethical and proactive application of big data to Italian healthcare is proposed by the platform ‘ThatMorning’. A search engine that indicates the best hospital to go to when a certain pathology is given. Developers of ‘ThatMorning’ cross-referenced data from health facilities such as the number of services provided, degree of modernisation of medical equipment, degree of specialisation of physicians and nurses, the results of the interventions and the economic budgets.
So that the app can lead patients to the most suitable facility for the treatment of their illness. But not only this, the platform provides in also a space where patients can write a personal diary to keep track of their own clinical history and the possibility to read some ‘stories’ written by other patients who are experiencing the same disease so as to offer a network for psychological support.
What are the alternative therapies?
Where do you get access to these treatments?
Who are the experts for this specific disease?
These are just some of the questions that go through the minds of patients and doctors themselves who are always looking for the best way to treat a disease. As we have already seen, the data produced by hospitals are constant, full of meaning and profound. Not only through the machines connected to the patients, but also through the story of the disease by patients and doctors, by the experience gained in the ward, by the family of patients. All this make data more numerous (called Big Data) and more diversified. How can one extract knowledge from such a mass of data? For now there are two solutions; the first concerns the hiring of thousands of analysts to clean, label and sort these data. With all the limitations of the case like the impossibility to have an answer in real time and the enormous sum to spend in order to finance the entire process. The second concerns the application of artificial intelligence and blockchain. IA can be applied in the data collection, forecasting and processing phases. The ultimate goal is to create an AI specific for this field (as well as specific languages for scientific fields) eliminating the ambiguities that arise from the application of the same artificial intelligence to different fields. The potential of this technology allows to analyze billions of data points to have almost certain predictions and create new perspectives. Obviously in such a particular field of application quality data are needed, one of the basic rules of this technology is: ”the more the data entered is relevant, the more relevant the response will be”. The incredible thing is that for AI even the wrong answers are relevant; the fact that a particular medicine did not serve the purpose of curing a disease is of fundamental importance for a more correct diagnosis. Many doubts are raised about the privacy of this sensitive data and the intellectual property of successful trials and those that have not. Blockchain technology can be used to clarify these doubts; once something is published through the blockchain, it will be validated with a ‘digital stamp’ which will let everyone know who is the author of that pubblication and who has conducted that experiment. The blockchain also provides an immutable list of transitions so that when information is shared with someone, the track of this transition remains. AI and blockchain are potentially revolutionary technologies but only if used to solve important problems, and the most extraordinary thing is that it is happening now. Providing not only information and knowledge but also hope and tranquility.
Big data are not only cure, but also prevention. An algorithm was able to predict the outbreak of Ebola nine days earlier than the World Health Organization. And it’s amazing that thanks to this technology we could have used all that time to contain the spread of the virus. Another possibility in recent months comes from the video game industry; to a sophisticated virtual reality game was added a big data layer, which allowed the simulation of complex surgical procedures. A novice can use these games to exercise and, perhaps, make their first fatal mistake on a virtual patient. Not to mention that these ‘serious video games’ can be customized according to the needs of the individual patient and be adapted to a myriad of different cases.
The potential of Big Data is limited to the user’s imagination. As very often has happened throughout recent history, the technology has been blamed instead of the way it is used. The choice is always in our hands, control is always in the hands of someone rather than something. And the hope is always that that someone is moved by integrity and morals.
Andrea Radaelli
Andrea Radaelli, nato il 20 ottobre 1997, caporedattore del progetto 'Tecnologia ed Innovazione' mi considero un soggetto particolarmente vivace e interessato a come funziona il mondo. L’aggettivo che più spesso hanno utilizzato i miei parenti, i miei amici e le persone che mi stanno accanto per descrivermi è senza dubbio ‘curioso’.
Curioso del mondo, di come funziona e dei nostri effetti su di esso. Non solo in campo scientifico ma anche economico e geopolitico. Mi interesso di tutto ciò che ha un outcome positivo e propositivo, soprattutto nella sanità e nelle nuove tecnologie.
Curioso per le mie opinioni molto forti e per certi aspetti critiche sulla società, che a volte diventano i miei limiti. Alcune di queste sono che la conoscenza è faticosa ma rende liberi, che l’ignoranza nell’era dell’informazione è una scelta consapevole e che l’uguaglianza (dare alle persone le stesse cose) è un paradigma da superare con l’equità (dare alle persone le stesse opportunità).
Curioso anche per la mia personalità; ho delle idee molto ben determinate, sono un convinto ‘individualista sociale’. Cioè che ognuno di noi deve prima crescere e acculturarsi secondo le proprie inclinazioni per poi poter entrare in un gruppo di lavoro per poterlo arricchire della sua prospettiva.
Curioso per le mie scelte, dopo le medie ho scelto un liceo ad indirizzo artistico nonostante i miei professori spingessero per un liceo classico. Durante questi cinque anni ho avuto modo di viaggiare per l’Italia e scoprire gli incredibili siti dell’UNESCO. Ho viaggiato anche in Europa nelle maggiori capitali e mi sono innamorato dell’Unione Europea. Ho compreso quanto siamo fortunati del far parte di comunità internazionale e delle straordinarie opportunità che offre. Finite le superiori, ho scelto di studiare lingue applicate all’ambito economico nel CdL di ‘Scienze per la Mediazione Linguistica e Culturale’, un’università ricca di diversità; di nazionalità diverse, di lingue diverse e di culture diverse. Tutta questa eterogeneità mi ha spinto a ricercare un percorso magistrale decisamente più strutturato ed innovativo; 'Data Science and Business Intelligence'. La scienza dei dati si compone di principi metodologici basati sul metodo scientifico e di tecniche multidisciplinari volte ad interpretare ed estrarre conoscenza dai dati attraverso l'analisi statistica.
Di Mondo Internazionale mi ha colpito la potenzialità, la composizione giovane e il dinamismo. Le aree tematiche nel quale mi trovo a mio agio sono economia, sanità e innovazione. Il progetto di ‘Tecnologia ed Innovazione’ è quello con cui collaboro maggiormente e, soprattutto grazie alla pazienza dei miei collaboratori, mi trovo veramente bene.
Andrea Radaelli, born on 20 October 1997, editor-in-chief of 'Technology and Innovation' project, I consider myself as a particularly lively person and interested in how the world works. The adjective that my relatives and my friends have used the most to describe me is undoubtedly 'curious'.
Curious about the world, how it works and our effects on it. Not only in the scientific field but also in the economic and geopolitical field. I am interested in everything that has a positive and proactive outcome, especially in healthcare and new technologies.
Curious for my very strong and, in some respects, critical views on society, which sometimes become my limitations. Some of these are that knowledge takes effort but is essential, that ignorance in the information age is a conscious choice and that equality (giving people the same things) is a paradigm to be overcome with fairness (give people the same opportunities).
Also curious about my personality; I have very well-defined ideas, I am a convinced 'social individualist'. That is, each of us must first grow and acculturate according to their own tastes in order to be able to be a good team player in a work group in order to enrich it with new insights.
Curious about my choices, after secondary school I chose an artistic high school despite my teachers pushing for a classical high school. During these five years I have had the opportunity to travel around Italy and discover its incredible UNESCO sites. I also traveled around Europe in the major capitals and fell in love with the European Union. I realized how fortunate we all are to be part of this international community and the extraordinary opportunities it offers. After graduating from high school, I chose to study languages applied to economics, 'Sciences for Linguistic and Cultural Mediation', a university rich in diversity; of different nationalities, of different languages and of different cultures. All this heterogeneity pushed me to seek a decidedly more structured and innovative master's path; 'Data Science and Business Intelligence'. Data science consists of methodological principles based on statistics, scientific method and multidisciplinary techniques aimed at interpreting and extracting knowledge from data through statistical analysis.
I was struck by Mondo Internazionale's potential, young composition and dynamism. The thematic areas in which I am comfortable are economics, health and innovation. The 'Technology and Innovation' project is the one I collaborate with most and, thanks to the patience of my collaborators, I am really happy with it.