Big Data in Biomedicine. Challenges and Opportunities

In the Biomedical field, researchers, health care professionals and patients are generating large amounts of data from an array of devices such as genomic sequencing machines, high-resolution medical imagers, electronic health records, and smart phone applications that monitor patient health. The greatest challenge faced by bioscientists today is the ability to handle and use this flood of information easily and intuitively.

The ability to better collect, store, organize, integrate, analyze and share the Biomedical Big Data provides opportunities to enhance understanding of disease onset and progression, and accelerate the translation of data to bedside applications that advance the detection, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease. Yet, many challenges in these areas are still to be addressed. 

The event, jointly organised by B·Debate, Bioinformatics Barcelona (BIB), European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), aims to provide a forum for professionals of computer science and bioinformatics communities and researchers of life sciences to discuss the needs of state-of-the-art life science data analysis and the challenges that they represent in terms of computational resources and data management systems.

Questions regarding Big Data in the context of biomedical research and health care, necessary infrastructures, and societal aspects, among others, will be debated by multidisciplinary panel composed by a wide scope of internationally recognized experts on Tuesday, 11^th November. After the debate, on Wednesday, November 12^th, an Open Symposium with lectures given by some of the experts will be held in order to present key current initiatives in the field, as well as conclusions arising from the previous debate. The Symposium is addressed to researchers and professionals of related disciplines, such as bioinformatics, medical informatics, and any other disciplines related with health and life sciences.

DEBATES (attendance by invitation only)
Date: Tuesday 11 November, 2014
Venue: CaixaForum · Avinguda Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, 6-8 · Barcelona

OPEN SYMPOSIUM 
Date: Wednesday 12 November, 2014
Venue: CaixaForum · Avinguda Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, 6-8 · Barcelona
Time: 9:00h to 14:00h