Personalized medicine originally started off as a vague idea, but recently it has blossomed into something that is dramatically changing the health care world. When the important connection between personalized medicine and Big Data was made, it ushered the health care industry into an era of open information.

Medical records are starting to become more digitized and electronic databases are beginning to fill with data and radiology has to make sure to keep up. Dr. Eliot L. Siegel, professor of diagnostic radiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, spoke with DOTmed HealthCare Business News about this new era and the changing practice of radiology.


The realm of Big Data
“In order to be able to personalize treatment for a patient, we need to enter into the realm of Big Data,” says Siegel. Lab data, clinical data and when available, genomic data needs to be gathered, combined and analyzed.

The big challenge in imaging informatics right now is having that data available when it’s needed. In the past, patient records were not set up in a way that allowed for a seamless exchange of information, but that is starting to change.

“I think we’re starting to see the beginning of it, really, we’ve just so far scratched the surface as far as what I would refer to as clinical informatics, which is the ability to take all of the information in the electronic medical record and make all those available,” says Siegel.

The evolution of the electronic medical record initially started with just paper documentation that individual physicians had in their individual practices, but as time went on, there was much more of a consolidation of records between hospitals.

Siegel says that in the future, physicians will have the ability to search the medical records of multiple patients and the practice of medicine will rely less on the specific experience of a practitioner and more on data.

The future of imaging
Siegel spearheaded the National Cancer Institute’s Rembrandt Project to find a way to use MRI scans of brain tumors and create a mechanism that can extract meaningful and structured data from them.

He and his research team evaluated the MRI scans of brain tumors utilizing 20 different parameters and created a database with tags associated with those images. “As researchers and clinical practitioners are asking questions about how best to treat a particular brain tumor, the MRI scans have significant added value in a very rigorous database scheme,” says Siegel.

To move toward more personalized radiology, he says physicians need to do exactly what he and his research team did in order to better predict the patients’ prognosis and treatment options.


Changing practice of radiology
“We’re going to enter into an new era of practice and in order to stay relevant in that era of practice, with Big Data and with personalized medicine, our radiology data absolutely has to be discoverable by Big Data systems,” says Siegel.

Many companies, including the genetic testing company, 23andMe, are beginning to mine vast amounts of Big Data to personalize medicine and those in radiology need to ensure that they are not left behind. Siegel thinks the best way to make that happen is to combine and aggregate data that’s already been collected in clinical trials and radiology information.

“I think the age of personalized radiology is just getting started and I think it’s really exciting that we in the future will be able to know which studies to perform and which patients to screen based on data,” says Siegel.