Big Data and Public Health Systems: Issues and Opportunities

A. The Health System According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “a health system consists of all organizations, people and actions whose primary intent is to promote, restore or maintain health. This includes efforts to influence determinants of health as well as more direct health-improving activities. A health system is therefore more than the pyramid of publicly owned facilities that deliver personal health services” [1]. Furthermore, every health system performs the following set of basic functions [2]: • Delivering health services to individuals and to populations. • Creation of resources. • Stewardship. • Financing the system. The center of any health system must be the first of these functions, since healthcare constitutes the paramount goal and therefore the reason for the existence of the health system itself. Around it, other functions are organized, essential for ensuring healthcare delivery and public health. Among these, the following ones must be remarked: • Epidemiological surveillance, which comprises the collection and analysis of large volumes of data directly or indirectly related to people’s health, so as to detect or prevent possible health problems regarding public health. • Planning and overseeing the management of the health system, which allows healthcare organizations to set out their strategic goals, allocate the necessary resources, assess the degree of compliance of these goals and apply corrective measures if required. • Clinical research, focused on generating knowledge and applying it to the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic techniques. • Education and teaching, in order to train new professionals and keep the practicing ones appropriately updated and competent.