ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the issue of big health data in more detail, paying particular attention to the various and diverse claims that are made for the possibilities of these data across range of domains and sectors. Discussions about the potential of big data about health and illness have had a major impact upon healthcare and public health policy and practice. There is now much focus on power of vast data archives gathered by digital technologies, both to inform patients about their own bodies and health states and also to provide information to healthcare providers about health states of populations and use of healthcare. The term 'patient-generated data' has begun to be employed in medical literature as a part of health informatics. The notion of 'healthy city' has been part of health promotion discourses and strategies for some time. The chapter ends with a discussion of significant privacy and security risks to which people's personal health and medical data are exposed.
