Ethics council asks is Big Data overdone?

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics is seeking views on the collection and use of biomedical data in research.

The council’s consultation, which opened on 17 October, asks questions such as whether enthusiasm for Big Data has inflated expectations of government and researchers. It also considers whether the term needs a more precise definition; what are the privacy issues in the use of biomedical data in research; and whether researchers should be required to share data they have collected.

The consultation will inform the council’s inquiry into the ethical issues around the use of biomedical and health data, which will be published in 2014.