Topics Covered: 1) What is Data Mining and why is it used? 2) How is Data Mining used in the Pharmaceutical Industry? 3) Recent debate in the legality of Data Mining and the Pharmaceutical Industry
Pharmaceutical companies are taking advantage of the growing use of technology in the healthcare arena by using data to enhance their marketing efforts and increase the quality of research and development. The process of data mining allows companies to extract useful information from large sets of individual data. This process provides a knowledge that is vital to a pharmaceutical company’s competitive position and organizational decision-making. “Data Mining enables firms and organizations to make calculated decisions by assembling, accumulating, analyzing and accessing corporate data. It uses variety of tools like query and reporting tools, analytical processing tools, and Decision Support System (DSS) tools” (Rangan, 2007).
1) What is Data Mining and why is it used?
“Data mining is the practice of automatically searching large stores of data to discover patterns and trends that go beyond simple analysis. Data mining uses sophisticated mathematical algorithms to segment the data and evaluate the probability of future events. Data mining is also known as Knowledge Discovery in Data (KDD)” (Oracle, 2008). As stated, data mining is used to help find patterns and relationships stored within large sets of data, these patterns and relationships are then used to provide knowledge and value to the end user. The data can help prove and support earlier predictions usually based on statistics or aid in uncovering new information about products and customers. It is usually used by business intelligence organizations, and financial analysts, but is increasingly being used in the sciences to extract information from the enormous data sets generated by modern experimental and observational methods. Data
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