You’re invited to attend a meeting of the National Academies’ Standing Committee on Use of Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions

Integrating Environmental Health Data to Advance Discovery

January 10-11, 2013

Keck Center, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, D.C. Room 100

Research in biomedical sciences has undergone a dramatic transformation in the past two decades.  Science is increasingly data-intensive, computational, interdisciplinary, and collaborative. This trend toward "Big Data" is pervasive throughout science and imposing new challenges for biomedical research along three dimensions, sometimes referred to as the three V's: volume, velocity and variety. Whereas significant progress has been made in the development of digital technologies, community-wide principles and resource management for data volume and velocity, progress towards integrating existing heterogeneous data sets (the variety component of the three V’s) has lagged. This lag presents particular challenges for environmental health sciences, which is inherently cross-disciplinary.  Only through the coordination of all three dimensions will the full potential of Big Data be realized. This meeting aims to foster discussion about the need for enhanced data integration in environmental health sciences, evaluate the lessons that can be learned from integrative initiatives in other scientific domains, and strategize about how the community can take major steps toward improving data coordination and access to advance understanding about environmental effects on human health.  Please click here to register for this meeting.

Here’s a brief look at the topics to be covered at the meeting.

Browse the full agenda here.

• Using Heterogeneous Datasets to Advance Discovery: Drawing from on-going efforts, speakers will focus on scientific opportunities and insights to be gained from analysis of heterogeneous data sets.
•  Data Integration - Strategies and Lessons Learned: A deeper look at on-going data integration efforts within a variety of health-related research fields and explore the lessons-learned applicable to the environmental health sciences community.
•  Environmental Health Sciences Data Streams: Snapshots of specific data types important in environmental health research. Speakers will discuss the unique challenges that could impact the ability to integrate environmental health data. A panel will also  reflect upon the infrastructure and technical challenges that may arise and the needs specific to the environmental health sciences community that may require unique, innovative solutions.
• Federal Government and EHS Data Integration: What is the role of the federal government in developing strategies for and coordinating and managing efforts to integrate heterogeneous data sets? Participants will discuss steps that may require centralized or top-down management as well as what may be best accomplished from the bottom-up.

This meeting is free and open to the public. Please visit the meeting page to view the full agenda and register for the meeting. Webinar attendance will be permitted by registering on the website.

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