"First, the doubling time of medical knowledge is currently estimated to be less than ten years and continues to decrease. Second, the volume of medical literature that a busy doctor needs to read to stay current keeps increasing and all too frequently different research reports present apparently contradictory evidence – frequently, no single treatment approach is suitable for all cases. Finally, as in all other aspects of our life, the amount of useful interpretable health data being collected has started to grow at an explosive rate.
When you consider these factors, combined with the pressure to maintain quality while seeing increasing volumes of patients, it’s easy to understand why many doctors today feel that there has to be a different and more satisfying way to deliver the high quality care that they believe is possible."
More: http://blogs.sas.com/content/hls/2011/10/04/healthcare-has-a-problem-big-data-the-law-of-seven/