My Big Data Story

Many stories start with a dream and there are many where a visionary remains unsupported for many years before recognition. I am not the visionary, but definitely the one with a dream and here is the first chapter of my story.
On a quite evening of 2014, something remarkable happened in my life that started a process of intellectual and personal journey for me. I was randomly scrolling through the newsfeed on Twitter and I came across an American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) hosted “Twitter Chat”. Back then, I was interested in applying into Pulmonary Critical Care and was trying hard to network.
The topic being discussed in this chat was a term I had never heard before. Big Data! I would be lying if I say what I thought this term was, was even close to what it really is. I went on Wikipedia, tried to understand it as much as I could within the fifteen minutes I had because I really wanted to participate which I did. The chat was over, but my curiosity was not. I started reading everything I could find that involved big data and critical care medicine. Soon I learned that I was not the only naive clinician, pretty much no one in my class knew what Big Data was.
I emailed the Bioinformatics faculty and was lucky to find a Clinician Researcher to mentor me to give my senior seminar talk on Big Data and its applications in clinical medicine. The talk was well received but I can bet no one had an idea what I was talking. My journey continued into fellowship. I decided maybe the ideas I have will sound too haywire and groundless to the research leadership in the division. I decided to pursue other forms of research to fit in with my peers and to meet the expectations of the program.
It felt difficult suppressing my interest in machine learning and data management. I finally decided at the end of first year of my fellowship to reach out to one of the authors who’s work had deeply inspired me. Unfortunately he was faculty at program many miles away and suggested I should pursue a masters in bioinformatics at MIT if I want to do something remarkable. This was not possible at that time due numerous reasons. He ended up doing me one of the biggest favors any one has ever done for me professionally. He linked me with a group of scientists he had worked with. This group happened to me within driving distance from me.
I immediately scheduled a meeting with this group. I was the only clinician they had met who was interested in the work they were doing. They proposed for me to become a collaborator and clinical affiliate with them for not one but five projects! That year I drove to meet them maybe five times. By the end of 7 months of work, the group and I had completed 2 projects completely.
In this roller coaster ride, I learned a lot of things. First, in the pursuit of science, you have to remain curious. Second, sometimes the path you take is not a standard one. Third and the most important one, sometimes you are meant to be a trail blazer. Mentors are the backbone of scientific careers. I consider myself lucky I met exceptionally smart people who taught me a lot but I do not have a mentor yet. I will talk about my interests, research and ideas in the next chapter.
