Recent applications of data mining in medical diagnosis and prediction

Big data has been used in the health sector to improve the quality of life, predict epidemics, cure diseases, and avoid preventable deaths, beyond increasing profits or reducing the burden of excess labor. Data sources in healthcare have become quite diversified and accessible to individuals, such as wearable and implantable devices, smartphones, and real-time sensors. When combined with existing health data, daily (even instantaneous) data from these devices can be used to predict future health conditions of individuals and to identify necessary intervention points. This chapter discusses a number of recent studies that introduces methods for using big data to create intelligent systems for patient diagnosis, triage, predicting lab results, and even detecting tumors. These studies open ways for researchers in the healthcare sector to improve the quality of services provided to the patients as well as reducing costs for the healthcare institutions.