title: Sharing big biomedical data.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The promise of Big Biomedical Data may be offset by the enormous challenges in handling, analyzing, and sharing it. In this paper, we provide a framework for developing practical and reasonable data sharing policies that incorporate the sociological, financial, technical and scientific requirements of a sustainable Big Data dependent scientific community.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Many biomedical and healthcare studies may be significantly impacted by using large, heterogeneous and incongruent datasets; however there are significant technical, social, regulatory, and institutional barriers that need to be overcome to ensure the power of Big Data overcomes these detrimental factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pragmatic policies that demand extensive sharing of data, promotion of data fusion, provenance, interoperability and balance security and protection of personal information are critical for the long term impact of translational Big Data analytics.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Institute of Neuroimaging and Informatics, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Sothern California, 2001 North Soto Street-Room 102, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.
authors.forename: Arthur W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Toga
authors.affiliation: Statistics Online Computaitonal Resource, University of Michigan, UMSN, 400 North Ingalls, Room 4341, Ann Arbor 48109-5482 MI, USA.
authors.forename: Ivo D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Dinov
keywords: Analytics; Big data; Policy; Privacy; Sharing