A JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY EDITORIAL

Big Data: could it ever cure Alzheimer’s disease? When, with the benefit of hindsight, people look back at the his-tory of biomedical sciences at the turn of the 21st century, the focus will inevitably turn to dementia, and in particular Alzheimer’s disease. How did brain scientists and clinicians of that gener-ation—our generation—deal with this global health issue? Did we make the right choices, or will we seem woefully inadequate, our judgements quaintly naı̈ve? One strategy that will surely come under scrutiny is the investment in big data sets. In Alzheimer’s disease there has been a surge in recent years towards ‘Big Data ’ initiatives, reflecting a general drive that has galvanized other disciplines, in medicine and beyond (Cukier and Mayer-Schonberger, 2013). From business to government, many have been seduced by the possibilities that Big Data seems to offer for a whole range of problems. However, not everyone i