Table 1.

Types of big data and their sources/channels in the field of cardiology.

Type of big data	Sources/channels
Epidemiological/clinical big data	Epidemiological survey
	Claims-based database (administrative database)
	Electronic health records (EHRs)/electronic medical records (EMRs)
	Large clinical registries (the “Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) National Database,” the “American Heart Association (AHA) Get With The Guidelines (GWTG) Database,” the “American College of Cardiology (ACC) National Cardiovascular Data Registry” (NCDR), the “Hospital Compare Database,” the “National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA) Registry,” the “STS/ACC Transcatheter Valve Therapy (TVT) database,” the “Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Registry,” and the “Cooperative Cardiovascular Project”)
Molecular big data	Microarray chips, next-generation DNA and RNA sequencing and whole-exome sequencing, chromatin-immunoprecipitation-coupled sequencing, and mass-spectrometry-based proteomics analysis
Big data generated by information and communication technologies (ICTs)	Smartphones, apps, and gamified mobile apps Smartwatches Sensors and wearable devices/technologies Imaging techniques (i.e., radiography, radiomics, and radiogenomics)
Computational/digital big data	“Non-conventional data streams”
	Web searches (Google Trends)
	Website page consultation (i.e., Wikipedia)