Big Data in the 1800s in surgical science: A social history of early large data set development in urologic surgery in Paris and Glasgow

“Big Data” in health and medicine in the 21st century differs from “Big Data” used in health and medicine in the 1700s and 1800s. However, the old data sets share one key component: large numbers. The term “Big Data” is not synonymous with large numbers. Large numbers are a key component of Big Data...

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Main Author: Dennis J Mazur
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2014-07-01
Series:Big Data & Society
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951714543701
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author Dennis J Mazur
author_facet Dennis J Mazur
author_sort Dennis J Mazur
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description “Big Data” in health and medicine in the 21st century differs from “Big Data” used in health and medicine in the 1700s and 1800s. However, the old data sets share one key component: large numbers. The term “Big Data” is not synonymous with large numbers. Large numbers are a key component of Big Data in health and medicine, both for understanding the full range of how a disease presents in a human for diagnosis, and for understanding if one treatment of a disease is better than another treatment or better than just leaving the patient on his or her own without therapy. In this paper, we examine the first considerations of Big Data in medicine in Paris in the early 1800s when urologic surgeon Jean Civiale collected the first large numbers. Civiale collected the large numbers to defend the efficacy of his urologic instrument, the lithotrite, and the surgical procedure he developed, lithotrity, for the removal of bladder stones compared with earlier, more invasive surgical approaches. We examine how large numbers were adjudicated in social decision-making in the Académie des sciences, Paris, when a dispute arose among French urologic surgeons about the importance of large numbers in surgical science. After Civiale’s successful defense of his instrument and procedure in Paris, we examine how his approach to Big Data (large numbers) impacted data collection by George Buchanan in his use of the procedure at the Royal Hospital Infirmary in Glasgow.
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spelling doaj.art-e985c5c2099741db82bd8f86923a311d2022-12-21T23:53:38ZengSAGE PublishingBig Data & Society2053-95172014-07-01110.1177/205395171454370110.1177_2053951714543701Big Data in the 1800s in surgical science: A social history of early large data set development in urologic surgery in Paris and GlasgowDennis J Mazur“Big Data” in health and medicine in the 21st century differs from “Big Data” used in health and medicine in the 1700s and 1800s. However, the old data sets share one key component: large numbers. The term “Big Data” is not synonymous with large numbers. Large numbers are a key component of Big Data in health and medicine, both for understanding the full range of how a disease presents in a human for diagnosis, and for understanding if one treatment of a disease is better than another treatment or better than just leaving the patient on his or her own without therapy. In this paper, we examine the first considerations of Big Data in medicine in Paris in the early 1800s when urologic surgeon Jean Civiale collected the first large numbers. Civiale collected the large numbers to defend the efficacy of his urologic instrument, the lithotrite, and the surgical procedure he developed, lithotrity, for the removal of bladder stones compared with earlier, more invasive surgical approaches. We examine how large numbers were adjudicated in social decision-making in the Académie des sciences, Paris, when a dispute arose among French urologic surgeons about the importance of large numbers in surgical science. After Civiale’s successful defense of his instrument and procedure in Paris, we examine how his approach to Big Data (large numbers) impacted data collection by George Buchanan in his use of the procedure at the Royal Hospital Infirmary in Glasgow.https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951714543701
spellingShingle Dennis J Mazur
Big Data in the 1800s in surgical science: A social history of early large data set development in urologic surgery in Paris and Glasgow
Big Data & Society
title Big Data in the 1800s in surgical science: A social history of early large data set development in urologic surgery in Paris and Glasgow
title_full Big Data in the 1800s in surgical science: A social history of early large data set development in urologic surgery in Paris and Glasgow
title_fullStr Big Data in the 1800s in surgical science: A social history of early large data set development in urologic surgery in Paris and Glasgow
title_full_unstemmed Big Data in the 1800s in surgical science: A social history of early large data set development in urologic surgery in Paris and Glasgow
title_short Big Data in the 1800s in surgical science: A social history of early large data set development in urologic surgery in Paris and Glasgow
title_sort big data in the 1800s in surgical science a social history of early large data set development in urologic surgery in paris and glasgow
url https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951714543701
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