An Overview of Healthcare Data Analytics With Applications to the COVID-19 Pandemic

4 Abstract—In the era of big data, standard analysis tools may be inadequate for making inference and there is a growing need for more 5 efficient and innovative ways to collect, process, analyze and interpret the massive and complex data. We provide an overview of 6 challenges in big data problems and describe how innovative analytical methods, machine learning tools and metaheuristics can tackle 7 general healthcare problems with a focus on the current pandemic. In particular, we give applications of modern digital technology, 8 statistical methods,data platforms and data integration systems to improve diagnosis and treatment of diseases in clinical research and 9 novel epidemiologic tools to tackle infection source problems, such as finding Patient Zero in the spread of epidemics. We make the 10 case that analyzing and interpreting big data is a very challenging task that requires a multi-disciplinary effort to continuously create 11 more effective methodologies and powerful tools to transfer data information into knowledge that enables informed decision making. Q2