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# Big Data and Healthcare: An Interview With Rod Smith
- URL: https://www.philsimon.com/big-data-and-health-care-an-interview-with-rod-smith/
- Published: 2013-06-19T20:49:28.000Z
- Updated: 2025-07-13T17:21:29.000Z
- Description: An interesting chat about how one institution has embraced Big Data.
- Author: Phil Simon
- Tags: Big Data, Healthcare, HuffPo, Sponsored, Too Big to Ignore

I know a thing or two about data, especially the big kind that is so popular today. Far too many people, however, still think of data as rows as columns in a spreadsheet.

Sure, that type of [structured data](https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/structured%5Fdata.html?ref=philsimon.com) is important. Big Data doesn't change any of that. The power of unstructured data is hard to dismiss, especially given the proliferation of powerful text-, photo-, and video-mining tools being developed.

I'm hard-pressed to think of an industry that could benefit more from mining unstructured data than health care. The power of this type of information is a major emphasis in *Too Big to Ignore*. Along those lines, I recently sat down with Rod Smith of IBM. In his role, Smith serves as the VP of Internet Emerging Technologies to talk about how [Seton Health Care](https://www.seton.net/?ref=philsimon.com) used the unstructured data on patient records in fascinating ways. We also discuss how to get doctors on board with emerging technologies.

Watch the video here.

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*I wrote this post as part of the* [*IBM for Midsize Business*](https://www.ibm.com/?ref=philsimon.com) *program*

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**This post also ran on [*Huffington Post*](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/phil-simon/big-data-and-health-care%5Fb%5F3468045.html?ref=philsimon.com "HuffPo").**