This document discusses how big data and business intelligence can help drive critical decision making in healthcare. It notes that big data describes the vast amounts of digital information now stored, and tools like business intelligence can organize and interpret this data to benefit public health, research, patient care, and hospital operations. Business intelligence systems allow leveraging of existing systems, integrating patient and performance data, and providing real-time, predictive and flexible insights. Data from sources like social media, Google trends and analytics can provide information on topics like predicting personality, eating habits, breakups, and flu trends. The document also discusses using data and business intelligence at different layers from the clinical to enterprise level to provide insights and support functions like patient safety, decision making,