Table 1.

The Vs of big data.

Volume	High-throughput technologies for gathering data and/or continuous gathering of clinical population data
Variety	Heterogeneous structured and unstructured data from various sources both qualitative (text mining medical records) and quantitative (medical images, high-throughput omics data, clinical laboratory tests, environmental data from sensors, etc.)
Velocity	High-speed processing for fast decision-making in real time or near real time
Variability	Consistency or inconsistency of the data over time
Veracity	Data with variable quality and data from uncontrolled environments
Value	Data relevant to the health of individuals or populations and data from longitudinal studies

Big data is defined in terms of either the first 3, or all 6, Vs.