Sharing big biomedical data

BACKGROUND: The promise of Big Biomedical Data may be offset by the enormous challenges in handling, analyzing, and sharing it. In this paper, we provide a framework for developing practical and reasonable data sharing policies that incorporate the sociological, financial, technical and scientific requirements of a sustainable Big Data dependent scientific community. FINDINGS: Many biomedical and healthcare studies may be significantly impacted by using large, heterogeneous and incongruent datasets; however there are significant technical, social, regulatory, and institutional barriers that need to be overcome to ensure the power of Big Data overcomes these detrimental factors. CONCLUSIONS: Pragmatic policies that demand extensive sharing of data, promotion of data fusion, provenance, interoperability and balance security and protection of personal information are critical for the long term impact of translational Big Data analytics.