Where Chemical Sensors May Assist in Clinical Diagnosis Exploring “Big Data”

An overview is presented of the many opportunities and challenges for using “Big Data” concepts to treat data from chemical sensors. Issues discussed include the need to make data machine readable and how to integrate distinct types of data that can be acquired and stored in different places. As a concrete example of possible applications, we propose a framework for an expert system dedicated to clinical diagnosis, where data from various types of sensors can be combined with text to provide better-informed diagnostics.