Leveraging Big Data sources, techniques and findings while formulating policies and programmes could help improve Bangladesh’s health situation, according to speakers of the “International conference on Big Data for Health”.

The two-day meet was jointly organised by Access to Information (a2i) Programme of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, UNICEF, icddr,b, Measure Evaluation, and Bloomberg Data for Health (D4H) Initiative.

Held at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre from 11-12 February 2019, the programme sought to develop a road map on how ‘Big Data’ could be used in the health sector.

Big Data, put simply, means extremely large data sets that, when analysed computationally, revealed patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behaviour and interactions.

“Bangladesh has gained the capability to lead in the digital technology world. We were the first country to declare itself a digital one. We will not be lagging behind in technology. Big Data wouldn’t be a big challenge for us,” Mustafa Jabbar, the minister for posts, telecoms and IT, said at the inauguration.

"The healthcare industry offers one of the biggest potentials for big data use. Big Data has already shown an increased potential to reduce cost of treatment and also ensure better treatment,” Resident Representative of UNDP Bangladesh, Sudipto Mukerjee, said.

“The application of big data analytics has positive and also lifesaving outcomes,” he added pointing out examples of such Big Data use in other countries. 

The conference addressed three thematic areas. International experiences with Big Data applications that improved Health outcomes, existing and potential Big Data sources for health-related applications in Bangladesh, and strategies for building capacity to develop health-related Big Data applications.

Experts from organisations who had implemented successful health-related Big Data solutions in 15 different countries including USA, UK, Australia, Japan, China, etc. presented their experiences and discussed the issues that might arise in replicating these solutions in Bangladesh. 

In addition, representatives of donor organizations had provided insights on the challenges of supporting the implementation of Big Data solutions.

Anir Chowdhury, Policy Advisor, a2i cited the key achievements of the two-day conference in his concluding remark.

“We have found commitments from stakeholders through their participation. Now we will be able to establish a general platform to apply Big Data accumulated from different sources. The culture of data in Bangladesh comes from a ‘culture of reporting’. We need to change that mindset to ‘culture of problem solving.”

Dr. Krishna Gayen, Director General, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS); Dr. Bardan Jung Rana, WHO Representative to Bangladesh; Richard Delaney, Deputy Director, Vital Strategies, Bloomberg Md. Abul Kalam Azad, Principal Coordinator (SDG Affairs), Prime Minister’s Office; Md Ashadul Islam, Secretary, Health Services Division, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare; Saurendra Nath Chakrabhartty, Secretary, Statistics & Informatics Division, Ministry of Planning; Prof. Dr Abul Kalam Azad, Director General, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and Md. Mustafizur Rahman, Project Director (Additional Secretary), a2i Programme; and were present and delivered speeches at the opening ceremony.