Radiosurgery Registry Data Mining: Process and Results from the First 3000 Patients

Douglas Kondziolka, MD, of New York University Langone Medical Center discusses big data and the power of discovery through registries in clinical research, specifically radiosurgery registry data mining. He gives a history of how clinical research has been completed in the past and why randomized trials are so infrequently completed. He then contrasts small data—driven by hypothesis toward validation—with big data—understanding driven by existing abundant data. He then delves into discussing big data as it relates specifically to neurosurgery using case examples and how it can be used to improve the field and accelerate understanding.