Table 4.

Major shortcomings and limitations of big data in current cardiological practice and clinical research.

Type of big data	Limitation/issue
Epidemiological/clinical big data	Discrepancies between registry-based studies and individual (single- or multi-center) investigations
	Discrepancies among database-based studies
	Privacy and bioethical issues
Molecular big data	Conflicting results among studies (depending on the type of tissue studied, the type of molecular technique used, etc.)
	“False discovery” of markers
Big data generated by information and communication technologies	Privacy and bioethical issues due to the pervasive and ubiquitous nature of the devices
Computational/digital big data	Lack of transparency concerning the algorithm