Considering a historical event that involves basic data analysis a big data event will always be a leap. Still, there is this very human need to build myths and stories around the things that are around us. Big data is no different. Without further ado, here is a story about a 19th-century French urologist and big data.
Post-Napoleonic Europe
In order to fully understand the story of the (arguably) first use of big data in medicine, it is necessary to paint a picture of what the world was like at the time, the 1830s. By doing so, it will become much clearer why this example of big data use was so revolutionary.
The period of time that makes the setting for this big data tale comes after Europe disposed of the French Dictator Napoleon. But before Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch established that microorganisms that are to blame for the majority of diseases. This is also the time when surgery was advancing rapidly because of the lessons learned from innumerable Napoleonic wars.
Urologist Mr. Jean Civiale and his Invention
Mr. Jean Civiale is the main character in this early big data story. A French urologist and surgeon who, like many of his peers at the time, was looking for new ways to improve medicine. Being a urologist, a lot of his work revolved around bladder stones (some things never change).
He invented an instrument called lithorite for use in a procedure called lithotripsy. It’s a novel way to get rid of bladder stones. Both the instrument and the procedure aimed to improve the practice of the day, lithotomy – the opening of the abdomen and bladder to gain access to bladder stones.
At the time, the French Academy of Sciences reviewed all new inventions and procedures. Civiale knew he would need something to back up his new invention, so he turned to data.
Mr. Civiale’s Big Data Proof
Civiale collected data on almost 5,500 lithotomy procedures from all over Europe. He discovered that more than a thousand patients died during or shortly after being operated on. All in all, about 20 percent of people who underwent lithotomy died.
It is important to remember that this was a huge number. Not least the data collection was quite an undertaking.
Of course, this large set of data would have been completely useless to Mr. Civiale if his method had turned out to be even more dangerous.
It did not.
He looked at his own procedures, as well as some done by his colleagues. It turned out the mortality rate with his new procedure, lithotripsy, dropped to just over 2 percent.
Academy’s Review and Aftermath
Just as Civiale had predicted, the French Academy of Sciences commissioned a team to review his data. Led by the famous French mathematician and statistician Simeon Denis Poisson.The team also featured, among others, Napoleon’s own surgeon and an overall fascinating character by the name of Dominique Jean Larrey.
The team reviewed Civiale brutally, pointing out certain shortcomings of his data set and its interpretation. They also touched upon the more theoretical and socially-oriented implications of seeing patients as nothing but sets of data.
Civiale was at least commended on the scope of his research and the large number of cases he had included. They also had the foresight to conclude this research of Civiale’s was a step in the right direction for medical science and science in general.
Civiale’s data and research was later reviewed and adopted by George Buchanan from the Clinical Surgery at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, further showing that big data analysis transcended nations and old rivalries.
Historic and Big Data Implications for Urologist
Back in the 1830s, Civiale collected and analyzed a humongous set of data. Collected from a number of sources and analyzed, it discovered a trend that would result in the advancement of science. Thanks to Mr. Buchanan’s studying of Civiale’s data, we could also see this big data moving across borders.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this story is that the use of pure data sets in medical science is still hotly debated. To some extent, big data has already started changing healthcare. It is only a matter of time before this becomes even more noticeable.
The response of the Academy to Civiale’s research also perfectly mirrors what we see happening with big data today, and not only in the medical field but business, technology and elsewhere.
There are people who say that big data and data analysis is inherently flawed because it tries to turn everything into numbers. They also feel that this is becoming too dehumanizing.
On the other hand, much like the case of the Academy’s comments about data being the right step, we have the proponents of big data who recognize the need for it; people who are moving beyond big data to dark data; people who do not necessarily want to take humanity out of every aspect of our lives, but who still realize that analyzing big data is still the way of the future.
Who thought that a French urologist from the first half of the 19th century could bring us to this conclusion?
AUTHOR: James D. Burbank is not a urologist nor a big data expert. He is the editor-in-chief of a business-oriented blog called BizzMarkBlog and he thought this was a big data story worth sharing.
